The Spirit stays and the Princess disobeys
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: AU: Here's a piece of what might've been had the Moon Spirit survived Zhao's attack. Sokka/Yue! Yay! Updated and will now be in progress with new chapters periodically. Finally completed for my adoring readers. Thank you for inspiring me to keep writing about it.
1. The Spirit stays & the Princess disobeys

Creation began on 03-31-09

Creation ended on 05-19-09

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Spirit stays and the Princess disobeys

A/N: After my portable hardware crashed and the original file of this story was lost forever, I had to recreate it. Hopefully, my memories from the lost file and some recalling of the episodes will prove sufficient enough to compensate. Plus, this is for all the people that wished for a Sokka/Yue relationship on the long-term instead of the short-term one that fate dealt them. Onward to the story.

As Admiral Zhao held the captive Tui in his clutches, the moon became an angry red, cutting away the power of the Waterbenders from their sole source. Aang, Sokka, Katara, Yue and the others approached him and demanded that he put the spirit back into the oasis. Iroh, who was devoted to the Four Nations staying separate than being united under the Fire Nation's reign, was more infuriated with Zhao's cruelty.

"Whatever you do to that spirit, I'll unleash on you tenfold! Let it go now!" He demanded of Zhao.

Zhao forcefully obliged and released the Moon Spirit back into the oasis, restoring the red moon to its original white. But then, in a fit of rage, unleashed a streak of fire at the oasis. But at the same time, the only living Airbender, out of reflex, intervened, and sent a kick of air at the Firebending Master and his flames, sending him into the water and putting him out, saving the spirits from being cooked. Katara got near Zhao and his soldiers, who were also knocked into the water, and froze them in ice, preventing them from Firebending.

"You might've stopped me, but you can't stop the fleet," Zhao told them. "You're as good as dead."

Then, Aang, with his tattoos glowing brightly, uttered, with the voice of his past lives, "No. We are not dead. Not yet."

Wading into the oasis, as though he were driven by the desire to protect the Northern Water Tribe in any way he knew was possible, and the Avatar State was the answer. The Moon and Ocean Spirits glowed and sunk into the water's deep darkness…along with Aang, who followed them. The waters of the oasis and the pool surrounding it rose up into the air and created some sort of monster made of spiritually-enriched water, with the Avatar in a some sort of air bubble and the koi fish beneath it. It left to seek out any Fire Nation soldiers and when it did, the Water Tribe people would submit and be spared…while the enemy was taken by the water…until the creature came to the ocean where the fleet was located, trying to retreat. The water creature unleashed giant waves that capsized all but three ships that were too far away for the waves to hit, but the ones that were hit had their passengers trying to swim to safety on some metallic driftwood that came loose from the sunken ships. Soaked and unable to Firebend, the soldiers were at the mercy of the water beast, which sent more waves and washed them all far away from the tribe.

-x-

The following day, with the spirits safely protected from the Firebenders (and with Zuko and Iroh disappearing from the tribe during the defeat of the navy fleet), Chief Arnook announced that the threat had passed and a time for rebuilding was to begin. Zhao and the few Firebenders that were with him would be taken back to the Fire Nation's waters and left to be dealt with. Master Pakku decided that he, along with a few Waterbenders, Healers and soldiers would journey to the Southern Water Tribe to help rebuild.

"But Aang still needs to master Waterbending," Katara, whom had been informed, reminded him.

"Well, then, I guess he'll have to start calling you 'Master Katara', then, hmm?" Pakku told him, declaring her a Master Waterbender.

Aang, still a little dazed after what had happened last night, couldn't believe that he entered the Avatar State and defeated an entire navy fleet with the help of the Moon and Ocean Spirits and his own past lives, protecting the entire North Pole from sure destruction. As he looked down at the destroyed buildings that the war had made, he pondered how long the onslaught would continue until he had mastered all the elements and defeated Fire Lord Ozai. How much longer were people going to live in fear of the Fire Nation? How long until they lost their homes and the people they loved? And how long until they even lost their hope?

Sokka, on the other hand, was packing up for the group before they set out to the Earth Kingdom in order for Aang to learn Earthbending from Bumi, the only Master Earthbender they knew and trusted. While feeding Appa some hay, he didn't notice the girl he really liked was right behind him.

"Um, Sokka?" Yue went, trying to get his attention.

He turned to face her and greeted her with, "Hey, Yue. How are you?"

"I'm doing fine," she returned the greeting. "There was something I needed to ask you…"

"Your choker," he cut her off, noticing that her betrothal choker/necklace wasn't on her neck, anymore, being replaced by the stone carving of the fish he had made for her on their small date.

"After last night, I've thought about everything, long and hard, and I've realized something: As much as I must serve my people, I can't stand the thought of being without you. I know that there will be dangers involved with your journey with the Avatar, but…I want to face them with you." She told him.

"You…want to come with us?" Sokka asked, hoping she was actually right.

"Yes. Yes, I want to come with you. You've been around the world, seen many people, made a difference, and I wish to do the same…just not only as a princess. As a person, like you."

Sokka didn't know what to say about this new twist in his life. His sexist streak had long since gone when he met the Kyoshi Warrior, Suki, but after seeing Yue and being around her, he found that, beyond everything else he knew, women were just as good as men, and that it didn't matter what your status is life was, be it royalty, nobility, poverty or political.

"Yue, I… I'd be honored if you came with us," he said. "I'd like that."

Yue, the moment she was within physical contact range of him, held onto him as he hugged her. This felt right to her. She knew Sokka, trusted him, even loved him. And it felt right to go against her tribe's culture and care about somebody she wasn't engaged to than the actual person she was engaged to.

"Yue!" They both heard the gasp of her father, Chief Arnook, as he saw, and heard, the whole thing.

"Father!" She gasped, letting go of Sokka. "I'm sorry. I can explain myself."

"Actually, it's alright," Arnook responded. "I do, however, have at least one request…to both of you."

Sokka bowed his head to the chief.

"Please, be careful out there," he requested of them, more so at his daughter. It wasn't until last night that he thought he would lose her to a foretold vision the spirits had given him when her life was saved. That a brave and beautiful, young woman would become the Moon Spirit. When that day came, he would be very saddened by the destiny she'd been given. But the Avatar had prevented that by saving Tui. He had saved his daughter's life, and now her destiny was her own to decide.

Yue bowed her head to him and promised to be careful out there in the rest of the world.

-x-

"Iroh is a traitor, and your brother, Zuko, is a failure," said the voice of Fire Lord Ozai to his daughter, Azula, as she was kneeling in front of him. "I have a task for you."

Azula looked up and gave a cruel smile.

"Find them and bring them back as prisoners," her father ordered her.

-x-

"So, how's your travel ware, Yue?" Aang asked the princess, noting her lighter garments that resembled Katara's, except being of a darker blue and with purple and lesser fur trimmings on the bottom of the dress and legs.

Also sporting a different hairstyle, Yue, now with her hair wrapped up in a larger bun that ended in a braided ponytail and had two pairs of hair loopies, responded that her travel ware would do, and it felt great for her to get away from the status of a princess of the North Pole. In truth, she felt greatly relieved of her status as the princess, and very happy to be with Sokka. She wanted to help him stop the Fire Nation and save the world. And to be with him for the rest of her life.

"So, where to?" She asked.

"Omashu," Sokka answered, sharpening his boomerang. "While Aang is still learning Waterbending from Katara, he'll learn Earthbending from King Bumi, a friend of his from a hundred years ago."

"Ohh…then, I can't wait to meet this Bumi." She said back.

"I'm really happy your father let you come with us," Katara told Yue.

"Yeah…I'm glad, too." Looking at Sokka, she was very glad. _Really glad._

The End.

A/N: I'm going to end it here and allow your imagination to think of the things that may happen now that Yue continues to live. I hope this gets reviews real soon. If I get any that say I should add more to this story, I may just add more. Bye-bye.


	2. The Princess and the Warrior

Creation began on 11-15-09

Creation ended on 12-26-09

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess meets the Warrior

A/N: Thanks to the review of, at least, one person that read my first _Avatar_ story, I shall add onto it another story. Get ready for the power!

Yue felt bad for Aang. Appa had been stolen by Sandbenders and taken to Ba Sing Se, where he would be sold to someone else. But she held onto hope, since they were going there themselves to find and reclaim the Flying Bison, try to get help from the Earth King, and stop the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun, when the Firebenders would be powerless. As she held onto Sokka's hand, she asked him, "Sokka, do you think there's anything we can do to help Aang?"

"I hope so," he answered her. _This is just as bad as when General Fong tried to get Aang into the Avatar State and caused massive destruction to the base._

Yue, by possible luck, recalled Aang's horrid experience when they arrived at General Fong's base and the Earthbender attempted to get Aang to enter the Avatar State and attack the Fire Nation instead of simply training with various masters to aid in the war and stop the Firebenders. She had agreed with Katara on one thing when it came to the Avatar State: While it was helpful half the time, seeing Aang, or anybody, in that much rage and pain was scary. She even agreed with Aang when he told the general that he was out of his mind, and was grateful that Sokka knocked him out with his club before they left to go meet King Bumi and try to learn Earthbending in Omashu…until they discovered that it had been taken over by the Fire Nation, forcing them to leave and find another Earthbending Master elsewhere. Though, she had to admit to Aang that his friend was funny in an odd way, and was happy to have met him for a while before they left.

Now they were at Full Moon Bay, since the idea of taking the Serpent's Pass was out of the question when the group heard from a family that there was a safer route to Ba Sing Se that the Fire Nation knew nothing of. While the team's latest member, the Earthbending Master, Toph, was securing their tickets, Yue decided to make sure the family was doing alright, since she didn't think that they were going to be alright by themselves surrounded by strangers that could've been thieves or Fire Nation spies trying to find a weak spot to capture more slaves. While also striking a friendly conversation with the expectant mother, Ying, the Northern Water Tribe Princess noticed a pair of familiar faces that she met back at the Northern Water Tribe: Zuko and Iroh of the Fire Nation.

_This could be bad,_ she thought calmly, as she got up and told the family she'd be right back; that she needed to speak to Sokka, unaware that another woman was right behind her.

"Oopf!" She gasped, bumping into the guard and falling onto her bottom in front of Ying. "I'm sorry. I just saw some people that may pose a problem and I need to see my boyfriend to warn him and the others of their presence and…"

"Did one of them have a scar on his face?" The guard asked her, helping her back onto her feet. "A burn-like scar?"

"Uh, yeah," she answered, seeing that it was a young woman, probably her age or younger, and looked, in a weird way, like the Earth Kingdom Avatar she saw along with Sokka and Katara that day at Chin Village: Avatar Kyoshi! "Um, are you, by any chance, a relative of Avatar Kyoshi?"

"No, but I am a native of Kyoshi Island," the young woman responded. "I'm Suki."

"Yue."

"Yue, we finally got the tickets," they heard Sokka call out to her. "Huh? Don't I know you from somewhere? You look familiar."

"I guess I do look familiar to someone I've met only once back home. Do I really look different without the makeup on?" She asked him.

"No… Suki?" He gasped.

"You guessed it," she chuckled at him. "What brings you here to Full Moon Bay?"

Then, Aang, Katara, Toph and Momo showed up, and Suki noticed that there was no Flying Bison around anywhere…and that Aang had an unfeeling expression on his face.

"Did something happen?" She asked them.

When Katara and Sokka explained everything, Suki felt bad about it all.

"That's why we're heading to Ba Sing Se: We're hoping to find Appa and get him back," Yue told her.

"Well, then, let's get going," Katara told them.

"But what about Zuko and Iroh? They're here, as well."

"What?" Sokka gasped, and Yue pointed over to where the Firebenders were sitting around. "Oh, great, and at a moment where we could've enjoyed ourselves."

"Why are they heading to Ba Sing Se, anyway?" Katara asked.

"I'd rather not find out," said Toph.

-x-

Deciding to take a different ferry to avoid Zuko and Iroh, the group tried to enjoy the ride to the station in Ba Sing Se. But the only ones not really enjoying it were Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki and Yue, and for different reasons: Aang was trying his hardest not to care about anything, due to his recollection of the last time he went into the Avatar State over Appa's bison-napping, Katara was trying to renew Aang of his emotions and tell him that it was okay to feel the way he was feeling about Appa, Sokka was thinking of a way to inform Suki that Yue and he were a couple without hurting her feelings, while Suki and Yue were trying to start another conversation that related to said boy.

"So, um…you and Sokka know each other?" Yue asked her, trying not to offend the young Kyoshi Warrior's heart.

"Sort of," Suki answered her. "We met for the first time when the Avatar showed up on the island. We didn't get off to a good start. He didn't like that he had his butt kicked by a girl."

"Yeah, he explained that to me a while ago."

"So, um…you're really a princess from the Northern Water Tribe?"

"Mm-hmm."

"What are you doing on a journey like this when there's danger just beyond the horizon?"

"Because…I want to help others, and I can't do that as a princess that has never been around the world like my friends have. People everywhere are taking part in the war, making a difference, trying to stop the Fire Nation, and I want to help the Avatar defeat the Fire Lord in any way that I can."

Just then, Sokka showed up, carrying two cups of tea for them.

"Here you go," he told them, handing them their drinks.

"Thank you so much, Sokka," praised Yue.

"Appreciate it," praised Suki, as well, and he then left to go get himself a drink.

Yue noticed that Suki didn't drink her tea, looking quite sad by something, and she assumed that it was Sokka…or…herself.

"Do you…like Sokka, Suki?" She questioned her.

The warrior gasped and responded, "Um, of course, I like him. What's to not like about Sokka? I like him, he likes me. We…like. It's a…mutual thing."

The princess wasn't fooled by her, and uttered, "That's…not what I meant by that."

"Oh. You mean…do I…like him-like him?" Suki asked her. "I can't deny that I have feelings, but it's not his fault. And…I can already see who should really be with him."

"You do?"

"Yeah… Heh, you go together with him perfectly."

Yue lowered her head down. The Kyoshi Warrior knew that she and Sokka were involved with each other, and yet, she hadn't voiced any dissatisfaction over the relationship…yet.

Then, taking another sip of her tea, Yue asked, "What was he like when you first met him?"

"Oh? He was… Well, not quite the fighter that he's maturing into now. And he was very upset that when we first met, I had beaten him so easily, and because I was a girl."

"Oh? Heh-heh-heh! Well, he seems to have gotten over that."

"He came to me later on, asking for lessons on how to improve his own skills…and he improved a lot. Once took me by surprise when we practiced to see how well he had gotten."

As they chatted some more, Suki noticed that Yue had a slight, scratch-like bruise on her left cheek, which Yue also noticed, due to the Kyoshi Warrior looking at it.

"Sandbenders," she explained. "When they took Appa."

She could remember it clearly as though it were only yesterday: When they found Wan Shi Tong's Library, Yue had opted to stay behind and watch Appa with Toph, since the Earthbending Master couldn't see on the sand, as it was not like solid ground or snow-covered ice, which they were used to walking on all of the time. Plus, she wanted to get to know Toph as much as possible. She had claimed that the sand made the vibrations she used to see the world 'fuzzy', whatever that meant, and Yue had suggested that she, being an Earthbender, could practice on how to remedy that problem, in case they had to deal with sand in the future. That was when, out of the blue, the tower of the library began to sink into the sand. Toph had tried to stop or slow its departure down when Yue had noticed the Sandbenders that they had seen earlier at the Misty Palms Oasis, being warned by Professor Zei that they weren't the type of people you wanted to be anywhere near if you had something worth taking by them. She knew the harsh truth of the warning when they came and attacked them for Appa, causing her to receive the bruise that came when they knocked her off Appa's back. She tried to tell them that the Flying Bison was the Avatar's property, but the leader of the thieves, Ghashiun, doubt that what she told them was the truth, since the Avatar hadn't been seen for a century, and it was he that gave her the mark on her cheek. She stayed with Appa, despite the Sandbenders' attempts to get rid of her, but she was, eventually, forced to let go when they decided to discard the saddle and whatever it had of value in favor of the bison itself. Yue felt pain in failing to protect Appa and swore not to trust the Sandbenders for as long as they had members like Ghashiun and his friends. She later explained that they had buried the saddle near a waterfall where they met the family that was on the way to Ba Sing Se, that they, when they had regained Appa, they could go back to retrieve it.

"Wow…you've been through a lot in that desert, haven't you?" Suki asked her.

"I consider us blessed to have gotten out of it alive," she responded.

-x-

As the night continued on and as the boat's passengers slept and chatted, Yue was still awake, unable to find sleep with the memories of Aang in the Avatar State in the desert preventing rest. His voice, his anger, increased by the fury of his past lives, echoing in her mind: "TELL ME WHERE APPA IS!" That was the only time she'd ever seen him that angry, and it reminded her of what Katara had said to him back at General Fong's base: "For the people who love you, watching you be in that much rage and pain is really scary." This had marked the third time she'd seen the Avatar State unleashed: First after her life had been saved along with Tui's, second with General Fong's failed plan, and now the desert when they re-encountered the Sandbenders and Aang was filled with nothing but anger. It took both Katara and herself to calm him down, as Katara couldn't get near him by herself. It was also the first time she'd seen the Avatar shed tears.

"Can't sleep, either?" She heard Suki's voice say to her.

"It's not easy when the last few days have become harder to endure," she informed her.

"When this war is over…I hope there will be days of happiness to embrace."

"Those are days I hope to experience…both out here and back home."

"You…weren't happy at home?"

"Not all of the time. While I was happy I was allowed to live, thanks to the Moon Spirit imparting with me some of its life, I still found myself being protected by the walls of the Northern Water Tribe from a war that had been raging for years, caused by the Fire Nation, all because they want to expand their territory by taking the remaining three nations. I heard the stories of them ending the Air Nomads in an attempt to remove the Avatar, but part of me didn't want to believe that one nation was capable of such a terrible thing."

"My father used to tell me to expect the unexpected all the time. Even when the Fire Nation didn't touch Kyoshi Island, and the people lived in relative peace, I never took a second thought that just because they hadn't shown up today didn't mean they'd not show up tomorrow. That's why I always trained to keep myself in top condition…for the time when they did show up take our lands, the other warriors and I would be there to prevent it from happening."

They conversed until the next thing they noticed, the sun was rising. They had talked all night long to each other, enjoying one another's company again.

"Look," said Suki to her, "we're almost at the Outer Wall of the city."

Yue looked and was amazed by the sight: The Outer Wall, despite it looking tiny from where they stood on the boat, was amazingly huge. The closest she'd ever seen before was only on the world maps that showed the geographical formations of the Four Nations, never knowing how big the Earth Kingdom truly was until after she had set foot on its grounds for the first time.

-x-

"Um… Katara?" Aang asked Katara, as she was leaning on a railing, overlooking the water and the Outer Wall of the city. "Can I talk to you?"

She turned to face him, and wondered why he looked so…upset. Just last night, along with the previous days, he was hollow, detached, and now he was…different.

"Thanks for yesterday," he said to her. "After last night, I realized just how much it hurt more to not care about anything and to discard hope. It even reminded me of how I care about Appa and the others…and about you."

Katara felt touched by his words, to the point where tears fell out of her eyes. She went over and hugged him, shedding several more tears.

Aang then said that he was just going to fly around over the wall and to the city, but would meet up with them later when he came looking for them in the city. Katara agreed to that, and even suggested that if he saw Appa, come inform them and they'd all tried to reclaim the bison when they'd go to find him again. Aang nodded that he would, opened his glider and took off into the air, with Momo following suit. Katara felt happy that the young Air Nomad was expressing his emotions again like before, reminded that when they both came out of the library and were told that Appa had been stolen, he expressed that, although angry at the theft, he wasn't angry at either Toph or Yue, so he didn't take out his anger on them, as they tried to keep the library from sinking and protecting Appa, respectively.

"Hey, where was Aang flying off to?" She heard Yue behind her.

"He's okay. He's just going ahead to the city. He'll meet up with us later when we get there."

"Is he really okay? He's not…acting unemotional, still?"

"He's expressing himself once more."

-x-

"Hey, Sokka," went Suki to the Southern Water Tribe boy, "we're nearing Ba Sing Se."

"I know. The wall's amazing." He told her, eating from of his bowl of porridge. "What are you going to do when we get there?"

"Oh, me? I'm not going." He looked at her with hurt in his eyes. "I just wanted to make sure that you guys made it to Ba Sing Se safely. I need to get back to the other Kyoshi Warriors now."

"Oh. Well…thank you for accompanying us here." He told her, trying to get over the pain he felt.

"Don't feel bad about it all. We'll meet up again. And when this war is over… Well, things will be different: People will be smiling, laughing, peace will be restored and balance shall return. The Four Nations living harmoniously again, as they should be."

Sokka smiled and nodded at her words. Peace and balance would be restored and brought back when the Four Nations were living together harmoniously again.

"You promise we'll meet again?" He asked her.

"I promise. And promise me one thing."

"Anything."

"Never give up on hope."

"I'll never give up."

A/N: And this shall do it right here, proceeding to the next chapter in due time. Again, I thank the sole review of the first story. I'm becoming more fascinated by the possibilities of what can happen to Team Avatar with Yue living. As always, please, review. Peace.


	3. The Princess and the Walls of Secrets

Creation began on 12-27-09

Creation ended on 12-31-09

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Walls of Secrets

A/N: Memories and current opinions generated by the characters, especially the only good princess of the whole series.

Yue had seen many remarkable things on her way to Ba Sing Se with the others within the Earth Kingdom, but to her, especially today, nothing had been more remarkable than the birth of a new baby. Only a few moments after Aang had left them, expressing his emotions once more, the expectant mother, Ying, had gone into labor. Katara, who had some experience in handling deliveries, helped deliver the baby, and had asked her to help, even when she confessed that she'd never done anything like this. It was like a life-changing lesson for the princess. Ying had named the baby, which had been a girl, Hope, after her great-grandmother. She almost felt envy toward Hope, who'd been born without complications, unlike herself in the past, but accepted that life was different for everyone, and refused to take unnecessary or unneeded anger out on an innocent life. Sure, her hair was still white, a side-effect of Tui imparting her with its life, but she was alive, and for her, it was acceptable. Even Sokka told her that he liked her hair.

Then, nearly an hour later, Aang had returned, revealing that he had seen a giant drill heading to the Outer Wall. She had to see it along with the others when they got out of the ferry station their boat dropped them off at. Toph and Aang used their Earthbending to raise a piece of the ground they stood on up the wall, and the princess saw the drill, sending a jolt of fear into her heart.

"Fire Nation," she had heard Sokka gasp.

"We finally made it to Ba Sing Se, and we're still not safe," she heard Ying, "no one is."

"They haven't touched the wall yet," she told them, "so, we still have time to stop them."

"Hey, there's nobody allowed up here on the Outer Wall. Who are you?" They heard the voice of General Sung, who, to Yue, seemed more experienced in war battles due to his age…or just defensive.

After escorting the family to the Ba Sing Se Monorail station, Yue returned to the Outer Wall's top and saw General Sung ordering his soldiers to continue dropping their large rocks at the drill, which had already penetrated the wall.

_Sokka, Aang, Katara, Toph, I hope you guys are alright,_ she prayed, and looked down at the massive drill, gasping at the sight of Aang, who was fighting the girl that used blue flames against her enemies, Azula, the Fire Nation Princess and daughter of Fire Lord Ozai. "Aang!"

By use of Earthbending, Aang had gathered the rocks around his right arm and pushed Azula away, allowing him to finish Sokka's plan to take out the drill. The end result was…quite muddy. Even she got hit with mud, though it was only a minute amount and it only got on her legs. The Fire Nation had lost again in their attempt to take the rest of the Earth Kingdom by taking its capital city, being reminded by Toph that there used to be a siege that lasted almost six-hundred days that was made by a Firebender referred to as the Dragon of the West, later discovered to be none other than Iroh of the Fire Nation himself over three years ago.

Now that they were all on a train heading for the Inner Wall, they would be able to find Appa without much distraction. This allowed Yue and Sokka to relax a bit as they sat together.

"Sokka, I think you got taller since the drill incident," she told him.

"Really?" He asked her, and she giggled. He had then realized that she had tried to make a joke.

"Look, there's the Inner Wall!" Katara informed them, and Yue looked at it. "We've finally made it to Ba Sing Se."

The Inner Wall looked different than the Outer Wall: It seemed smaller and less-protected than the Outer Wall…and cleaner, as well. When Yue looked over at Aang, she saw the look of depression on his face.

"Don't worry, Aang," she tried to cheer him up. "We'll find Appa."

"But it's such a big city," he told her.

"He's a giant bison," went Sokka, "where could anyone possibly hide him?"

They then entered the wall and exited out into the sight of the city…and saw the magnificent sight of its hugeness!

"Oh." Sokka sighed, apparently having his belief of finding Appa easily shot down by the size of Ba Sing Se, so Yue held his hand to cheer him up.

When their train reached the station and they got off, Toph expressed her dislike of the city.

"Back in the city again," she uttered. "Great."

"What could be so wrong about being here?" Yue asked her, unable to be completely mesmerized until she knew what it was about Ba Sing Se that bothered the blind Earthbender. "I mean, it looks fantastic and beautiful, like it could've been a place that was sought out for thousands of years by thousands of people before our time."

"It's just a city with a bunch of walls and rules, Yue," she told her. "Just wait. You'll get sick of it in a few days."

As the train departed with the Earthbenders in charge of running it, Yue noticed a woman on the other side of the tracks…with a friendly smile that, to her, seemed disturbing. She was wearing a long, light-green robe with a small, dark-green scarf around her neck and her hair supported by a strange, ornament that didn't seem to do so much except to act as an accessory for her.

"Hello, my name is Joo Dee," she greeted them as she approached them. "I have been given the great honor of showing the Avatar around Ba Sing Se. And you must Sokka and Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe, and Toph Bei Fong of Gaoling. Welcome to our wonderful city. Shall we get started?"

"Uh, no thanks," said Yue to her. "We're just here to find someone, and then we'll be on our way."

"Great, let's begin our tour. And then I'll show you to your new home here. I think you'll like it." She had responded, turning to lead them away from the station toward a carriage.

Sokka, feeling as though Yue had been shot down or offended, walked up in front of Joo Dee and uttered, "Maybe you missed it. We just need to find someone here, and then leave. We're trying to end a war before everyone gets into serious trouble here."

"You're in Ba Sing Se now. Everyone is safe here." She told him, and resumed leading them toward the carriage that was waiting.

Everyone looked at one another and each had confused expressions, but decided to at least take a look around the city. One of the reasons being was that Aang, Katara, Sokka and Yue hadn't seen inside the walls before, and another being that, while their primary concern was locating Appa and getting him back, they needed to request help from the Earth King, the very ruler of the whole Earth Kingdom. If they obtained his help, they could have a chance at stopping the Fire Nation before the arrival of Sozin's Comet, which would grant the Firebenders greater power to end the war in their favor. Yue had been told of this by Aang, whom had been informed by Avatar Roku, the Avatar before himself, during the Winter Solstice before they came to the Northern Water Tribe to learn Waterbending.

As their tour progressed, the princess saw their setting in the back had changed to something she wasn't too familiar with, but had seen enough of to know that it was filled with dread: Lots of people, dressed in clothes with stitches, rips, and covered in dirt were around the streets of the part of the city they were touring in, with a large wall that seemed to block off much the area.

"This is the Lower Ring," she heard Joo Dee say to them.

"What's that wall for?" She heard Katara ask her.

"Oh, Ba Sing Se has many walls. There are the ones outside protecting us, and the ones inside to help maintain order." Joo Dee explained. "This is where our newest arrivals live, as well as our craftsman and artisans, people that work with their hands. It's so quaint and lively."

Yue then pulled away from the sight of two refugees looking at them, afraid of the one holding a large sword that glistened their way, and held onto Sokka's arm.

"You do want to watch your step, though," informed Joo Dee.

"But…why do all of the poor people have to be blocked off in just one part of the city?" She asked her. "It…just doesn't seem right."

"This is why I never came here before," they heard Aang reveal. "I've always heard it was so different from the way the monks taught us to live."

Yue once again looked out at the people of the Lower Ring, praying that Than, his sister, his wife, Ying, and his newborn daughter, Hope, were alright, suspecting that they would be sent here, as well, being refugees of the war. Sad to say, she missed them right now.

The carriage then carried them away from the Lower Ring…and toward a scenery that was much cleaner and prettier than what they had seen before, with more trees and fewer people walking around, wearing better-looking clothes that held no speck of dirt on them whatsoever.

"This is the Middle Ring," said Joo Dee, explaining more of the city's locations, "home to the financial district, shops and restaurants, and the university."

Yue was then reminded of Professor Zei of the Ba Sing Se University, but none of them spoke up about him or what they had found out while in the desert to Joo Dee, who was still smiling that smile of hers, which really disturbed her. Until she uttered, "Does the university have any history on the Water Tribes or Air Nomads?"

"Possibly. Isn't history fascinating? Look, here's one of the oldest buildings of the Middle Ring, Town Hall." The carriage had stopped and the woman got off and walked away.

"It felt like she was only listening to every other word I said," Yue told the others.

"It's called being handled," Toph revealed. "Get used to it."

They got off the carriage and looked around the Middle Ring a bit, Yue seeing that it did have a lot of things to amuse or occupy oneself for some time. Seeing that even some people wandering around were drinking cups of tea and looking quite pleased with how their day was progressing. But, somehow, the princess wasn't completely impressed by their expressions and how they spoke of things. It was like, to them, there was nothing wrong at all, and that such a war, like the one they were in, didn't exist.

"Yue?" Sokka asked her. "Are you okay?"

"Maybe I should sit down back in the carriage," she suggested to him, feeling weak in her knees now.

He helped her back to the carriage and stayed with her until they were moving again, this time toward their final destination of the tour. They saw very few buildings and many trees and flowers, as though it were a perpetual dreamland or something.

"This is the Upper Ring, home to our most important citizens. Your house is not too far from here." Joo Dee explained, as their carriage was passing a large wall that was guarded by several men in dark robes that possessed dark expressions on their faces.

"What's inside that wall?" Katara asked.

"And who are the mean-looking guys in robes?" Sokka added.

"Inside is the Royal Palace. Those men are agents of the Dai Li, the cultural authority of Ba Sing Se. They are the guardians of all our traditions." Joo Dee answered.

"Can we see the King now?" Aang asked her.

"Oh, no! One doesn't just pop in on the Earth King."

At that moment, Yue wanted to speak out against this subtle refusal of just wanting to see the Earth King, but decided against it, still disturbed by the woman's smile, and stayed quiet for the duration of the tour until they reached their house. She still didn't feel so well, like she had a stomachache now, but tried to ignore it, pretending that she was fine. When they arrived at their house, she noticed that it was definitely larger than she had expected it would be, like a tiny version of the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace, and it was very beautiful.

_Wow,_ she thought, taking a step on the stone steps. _It's…almost too nice._

"Here we are. Your new home," she turned to Joo Dee, who had just received a scroll from a messenger that came and went. "More good news. Your request for an audience with the Earth King is being processed, and should be put through in about a month. Much more quickly than usual."

The princess' eyes widened while Sokka, completely stunned, repeated, "A month?!"

"Six to eight weeks, actually."

-x-

_It's too nice, _thought Yue, looking around the interior of their home as she sat down on a square mat. _Way too nice._

"Isn't it nice?" Joo Dee asked them. "I think you will really enjoy it here."

"I think we'd enjoy it more if we weren't staying so long," said Sokka to her. "Can't we see the King any sooner?"

"The Earth King is very busy running the finest city in the world, but he will see you as soon as time permits," responded Joo Dee to him, while Yue paid close attention to the tone of her voice, believing it to be just as disturbing as her smile was to her.

"If we're going to be here for a month, we should spend our time looking for Appa," Aang told them, to which Momo perked up and flew over to his left shoulder.

"I'll be happy to escort you anywhere you would like to go," went Joo Dee, bowing her head to them.

"We don't need a babysitter," uttered Toph to her, as she walked toward the door.

"Oh, I won't get in the way," she replied, getting in her way, "and to leave you alone would make me a bad host. When shall we start?"

It wasn't until half an hour later that they were outside again, searching for their bison by asking various people for information. One of them was a pet shop owner tending to a few birds.

"I'm sorry, but I haven't heard anything about a Flying Bison. I didn't even know there were any." He told them, while Yue looked around the shop at the animals, but keeping a close eye on Joo Dee.

"If someone wanted to sell a stolen animal without anyone knowing, where would they go?" Aang asked him.

"Where's the black market? Who runs it? Come on, you know!" Sokka demanded, agitated and pointing an accusing finger at the guy.

When Yue turned to face away from them to examine a Cat Owl and then back again, she noticed that Joo Dee had moved her head, but since she had taken her eyes off her, she couldn't tell what she had just done.

"Uh, that would be illegal. You'll have to leave now. Your lemur is harassing my sparrowkeets." The man told them, pointing to Momo, who was trying to keep the birds away while grabbing as much bird feed as he could into his mouth.

They left and tried to speak with somebody from the Ba Sing Se University, hoping to get any amount of information from them.

"Hmm, I've never seen any Sandbenders or nomads around here," answered a student to their questions. "You should ask Professor Zei. He teaches the class on desert cultures."

"I'm sorry, sir, but we don't have that option, anymore," said Yue to him. "But is there a professor around here that we could talk to about what's happening outside the walls of Ba Sing Se that involves the Fire Nation?"

The princess then looked at Joo Dee, not taking her eyes off her, and watched her shake her head with that smile of hers.

_I knew it, _she thought, realizing why the others they spoke to either didn't give them any information concerning their missing bison or left them with unanswered questions.

"Uh, I don't know. I'm not a political science student. I have to get to class." The student told them, and left in a hurry.

"Sokka," went Yue, dragging Sokka away by his right arm and away from Joo Dee's presence. "Sokka, we should all head back to the house now…and away from that woman."

"But we haven't gotten any leads yet," he tried to reason with her.

"We won't get any as long as we're with her. I just saw her shake her head when we asked the student about what's going on outside Ba Sing Se, and he left without telling us a thing. That probably explains why everyone else we asked about Appa wouldn't tell us anything: It was because she was with us, watching us, listening to see if we would ask about what we wanted to know. I don't think Joo Dee can be trusted around us as long as we're here. We have to get away from her."

Sokka looked over at Joo Dee, and took his girlfriend's word for it that this tour guide couldn't be trusted with them.

"Okay," he agreed with her. "Let's go home."

-x-

"Well, I'm sorry no one has seen your bison," Joo Dee apologized to the group as they stood on the steps of their home. "Why don't you get some rest? Someone will be over with dinner later."

As the carriage rode off, Yue was pleased that she was just gone.

_I never thought I'd be happy to see her leave, _she thought, and then looked at Sokka, who knew what to tell the others.

"Everybody, Yue suspected that the reason we couldn't find out anything was because of Joo Dee," he told them.

"What? How could she be the reason?" Katara asked her.

"I saw her shaking her head when we asked that student about the Fire Nation," she confessed to her. "Every time we tried to find out something important, she would always shake her head and smile. It's like she doesn't want us to know anything."

Then, they turned to the house across the street from theirs, seeing a man hiding behind a door.

"Might as well test our luck now that she's gone," said Sokka, and they walked over to the door and knocked. "Hello?"

The man opened up and greeted them.

"You're the Avatar and Northern Water Tribe Princess," he greeted. "I heard you were in town. I'm Pong. How are you?"

"Nice to meet you, Pong," responded Aang in a friendly tone.

"Pong, do you think you could tell us why everybody here never wants to talk about anything serious outside the walls?" Yue asked him.

"Yeah, like why they don't want to talk about the war with the Fire Nation." Sokka added.

"War? What are you talking about?" Pong asked, sounding nervous.

"I can feel you shaking," went Toph to him.

"Look, I'm just a minor government official. I've waited three years to get this house. I don't want to get into trouble." Pong told them, and then looked left and right, as if on the lookout for someone.

"Get into trouble with who?" Katara asked him.

"Shh. Listen, you can't mention the war here, and whatever you do, stay away from the Dai Li." He told them, and then closed his door on their faces.

"I had already made the choice of not talking to the Dai Li," said Yue, taking the expressions on the faces of the Dai Li agents they had seen earlier as an excuse to keep her distance from them.

All they could do now was go home and wait for dinner to be brought over to them, reminded that they hadn't eaten anything since breakfast on the ferry to the Outer Wall.

-x-

The next morning, Yue and Katara were the first ones to step out of their house, stretching their arms up and yawning after a long and good rest. Yue felt much better after sleeping from the events of yesterday, like she was a whole new person. She then noticed a roll of papers on a slot attached to one of the vertical supports of the house and grabbed it to see what was going on in the city today.

"Katara, look at this," she told the young Waterbending Master, showing her the news of the day.

"No way," she gasped. "Yue, this is perfect!"

They went back inside and found the others lounging around the upper part of the living room.

"We got it! We know how we're going to see the Earth King!" Katara told them.

"How are we supposed to do that? Joo Dee says that one doesn't just pop in on the Earth King." Toph tells them.

"It says here that the King is hosting a party at the palace tonight for his pet bear," reveals Yue to them.

"You mean Platypus Bear?" Aang asked them.

"No…it just says 'bear'," Katara explained.

"Certainly, you mean his pet Skunk Bear," went Sokka.

"Or his Armadillo Bear," added Toph.

"Gopher Bear?" Aang tried again.

"Just…bear," Yue told them again.

"This place…is weird," sighed Toph.

"The palace will be packed with people. We can sneak in with the crowd." Katara revealed the idea.

"That won't work," she told the Waterbender.

"Why not?" Yue asked the Earthbender.

"Well, no offense to the simple country folk, but a real society crowd would spot you from a mile away. You've got no manners." She explained to them, which offended them.

"We do, too, have manners, Toph," Yue told her. "You haven't displayed any manners since the day we met you in Gaoling."

"Yeah, and you're not exactly Lady Fancy Fingers," Katara added in, only to hear Toph burp afterward.

"I learned proper society behavior and chose to leave it," she explained, tossing a pastry that she was eating away. "You never learned anything. And, frankly, it's a little too late."

"But if you learned it, you could teach us," suggested Sokka to her.

"Yeah, I'm mastering every element," added Aang, "how hard can manners be?"

"Not too hard when used properly," Yue told him, trying to demonstrate manners. "Good evening, Mr. Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, Ms. Katara of the Southern Water Tribe, and Avatar Aang and Sir Momo of the Southern Air Temple. Your excellencies. Shall I lead you to your dinner table and guests this evening?"

"Why, thank you, Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe," went Sokka, getting in on the demonstration. "It would be an honor if you were to dine with us, as well."

"Why, thank you, sir," she told him, offering her right hand to him, which he accepted.

"Hmm… Yue seems well enough. Katara may be able pull it off, but you two could probably be lucky enough to pass as busboys." Toph told Sokka and Aang.

"Aw, but I feel so fancy," sighed Sokka, letting go of Yue's hand, then.

Later in the evening, when the lights were on and the sun was down, Aang and Sokka were waiting for the girls to instigate the first part of the plan to infiltrate the party and speak with the Earth King.

"Earth!" Aang shouted, holding out a balled fist.

"Fire!" Sokka shouted, wiggling the fingers of his own hand. "Aw!"

He had lost to Aang again in their element game. Then, the doors behind them open up and revealed the girls in their exquisite Earth Kingdom dresses, with Yue's bearing a light-green shawl that was almost identical to the one that Aang always wore, except that it was longer and had gold trimmings, covering up much of the upper portion of her dress, which matched that of Katara's, with her current hairstyle being the same, but with green beads to replace the blue ones for her hair loopies. They held out fans to hide the lower halves of their faces, which also had make-up on them, staring at them calmly…before surrendering to a series of giggles.

"Wow…you're so beautiful," praised Aang and Sokka to Katara and Yue, respectively.

They were about to respond with words of appreciation, but Toph stopped them.

"Don't talk to commoners, ladies. First rule of society." She told them, and then they walked away.

"When we get in, we'll find a way to get you in through the side gate," said Yue to them as they left.

-x-

When Katara said that the palace would be packed, Yue didn't expect the line to be long…or the people attending the party to be so…fancy and showing their wealthy nature constantly. It was nothing like what she was familiar with back home at the North Pole. Luckily, the guard allowed them to enter the palace with Toph's family seal, so there was no trouble. All that was needed now was to locate the side gate and let Aang and Sokka in.

"Toph, can you see the side gate around here?" Katara asked.

"Yeah, it's that way," she answered, but Yue prevented them from going near the gate when she saw a familiar face.

"It's Joo Dee!" She told them pointing over to their so-called tour guide, speaking with somebody.

"What is she doing here?" Katara wondered, and the three disappeared into the crowd of people, having to wait until Joo Dee was away.

Meanwhile, on the outside of the palace, Aang and Sokka were waiting outside…until Sokka felt that something was wrong inside.

"We need to find a different way into the palace," he told Aang.

"We could go in with them," he suggested, pointing to a bunch of men in short robes carrying food inside. "Toph said we might pass as busboys."

"That'll do," he reasoned, and they got to it.

Back inside, Yue felt like she needed something for her heart, which was beating too hard for her to breathe normally.

"Are you okay, ma'am?" A woman asked her.

"Oh, yes," she told her. "Must be all of the excitement from being here."

While Katara had gone to see if Joo Dee was gone, the princess was left with Toph, whom was with her standing by a wall.

"Well, everybody wanted to see the bear belonging to the Earth King," the lady said to them. "I'm Luok, by the way."

"I'm Jasmine…and this is…Okusama (Madam)," Yue responded, having disapproved of the original alias that Katara thought of for Toph, being called Dung, which, to her, sounded more like Dumb, and decided upon a proper name, since Toph was like a princess back home in Gaoling when they met her at her home, dressed in her pretty robes.

When Katara came back, she was with Aang and Sokka, who were dressed as busboys, and Yue felt better now that Sokka was near.

"May I offer you anything, young ladies?" Sokka asked, sounding like a perfect gentleman.

"Why, thank you," she answered, accepting a crab puff from the tray he was holding.

"I told them about Joo Dee when they came," Katara explained. "We can't find her now."

Yue turned her head away and saw Joo Dee, and she was coming their way!

"Trouble!" She gasped, but it was too late.

"What are you doing here?" She asked them when she got close. "You have to leave immediately, or we'll all be in terrible trouble."

"Not until we see the King," Sokka defended their cause for coming here.

"You don't understand. You must go."

Some sort of violent spirit must've possessed Yue, for she just pulled Sokka away from Joo Dee, who was trying to shove him to move, and in the process, caused Aang to spill a pitcher's contents onto another guest.

"Aaahh!" She gasped.

"I'm sorry," he apologized to her, and used Airbending to dry her off, but unintentionally left her a mess. "Oops."

"Oh, the Avatar!" She said in amazement. "Oh, I didn't realize the Avatar would be here."

Soon, all eyes were on Aang, as he'd been unintentionally exposed by his Airbending, showing his arrow tattoos to the general audience…and Joo Dee's smile changed to an expression of pure dread, as though what she had tried to prevent had proven inevitable entirely.

"Oh, no, what have I done?" Yue asked, but Sokka intervened.

"Aang, keep their attention on you," he whispered to the Air Nomad. "We'll keep looking for the Earth King while you entertain them."

"Watch this, everybody!" Aang went, and jumped out of his busboy disguise and onto a table, Waterbending everyone's beverage out of their cups and balancing atop a pitcher as he made a giant, multicolored ball.

"Ooh," they were all mesmerized by his display of bending used to entertain them, and Yue felt better allover again.

"Let's go, Yue," Sokka told the princess, and she followed him, Joo Dee banished from their current train of thoughts completely.

"Sokka, we don't know who the Earth King looks like," she reminded him.

"He should be the royal type: Flowing robes, fancy jewelry, has a luxurious lifestyle," he described him to her, but as she looked around, every man fit his description of the Earth King.

"But that could be any one of them," she told him, but then noticed a large palanquin draped with curtains that cloaked a man sitting inside it. "Okay, that's definitely him. The Earth King."

"Aang, the Earth King!" Sokka told Aang, whom got the message, and ceased his Waterbending and created his Air Scooter to meet the King.

Sokka and Yue attempted to do the same, but were then captured by…agents of the Dai Li.

"Hey, let us go!" Yue demanded, feeling rocks around her wrists.

Katara and Toph were nearing the palanquin when they felt hands made of stone grab their faces and backs to pull them away. Aang stopped at the end of the table and met a man in dark-green robes and looked like he took whatever occupation he did seriously.

"Avatar, it is a great honor to meet you," he greeted Aang as the Earth King was carried away by his servants. "I am Long Feng, Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se and Head of the Dai Li. I'd like to talk to you. You're friends will be waiting for us in the library."

-x-

"Why won't you let us talk to the King?!" Sokka demanded, angry at being taken away from the opportunity to speak with the King. "We have information that can defeat the Fire Nation!"

"The Earth King has no time to get involved with political squabbles and the day-to-day minutia of military activities." Long Feng told them, sitting in front of a hearth that illuminated the library in greenish fire, generated by the pile of crystals that were seen by them.

"What are you talking about?" Yue asked him. "The former King of Omashu is taking action against the Fire Nation. General Fong is also taking action against the Fire Nation. Why isn't the Earth King taking action against them? This could be the most important thing he has ever heard from anyone."

But Long Feng was unwavering and responded, "What's most important to his royal majesty is maintaining the cultural heritage of Ba Sing Se. All his duties relate to issuing decrees on such matters. It's my job to oversee the rest of the city's resources, including the military."

"So that means that the King is just a figurehead," went Katara, disturbed by this fact.

"He's your puppet!" Toph added in, just as disgusted and frustrated by this.

"Oh, no, no! His majesty is an icon, a god to his people. He can't sully his hands with the hourly change of an endless war." Long Feng defended.

"This war isn't endless," Yue tried to reason with him. "Unless the Fire Nation is stopped, by summer's end, a comet will arrive and grant them unfathomable power enough to end the war in their favor…and if they win…everyone will be at their mercy. It won't matter if you have the walls or not. They'll take Ba Sing Se, regardless."

"We found out about a solar eclipse that will leave the Firebenders powerless," Sokka added in, using the information they had gathered from Wan Shi Tong's Library before his simple mishap had insulted the very spirit into sinking the whole place before they had the chance to escape. "You could lead an invasion and end the war before the…"

"Enough!" Long Feng cut him off. "I don't want to hear your ridiculous plan! It is the strict policy of Ba Sing Se that the war not be mentioned within the walls. Constant news of an escalating war would throw the citizens of Ba Sing Se into a state of panic. Our economy would be ruined, and our peaceful way of life and traditions would disappear. In silencing talk, Ba Sing Se will remain a peaceful utopia. The last one on Earth."

The group could only stare at him with a full measure of shock, horror and anger, that he would, willingly, allow the war to continue on so long as the walls of the city remained intact…and he in power. It was sickening to even think that, when they thought it was easier to have the Fire Nation be their enemy, they'd have to contend with the select few of the very Earth Kingdom…or just this man that had control over the Dai Li.

"You can't keep the truth from all these people," went Katara to him. "They have to know."

"I'll tell them myself," added Yue and Aang, at the same time. "I'll make sure everyone knows."

"Up until now, you've been treated as our honored guest.But from now on, you will be watched every moment by Dai Li agents. If you mention the war to anyone, you will be expelled from the city.I understand that you've been looking for your bison. It would be quite a shame if you were unable to complete your quest." He counter-threatened them. "Now, Joo Dee will show you home."

Yue looked at Aang, who felt just as powerless as she did to do anything for the greater good of the world, and then turned to face the arriving Joo Dee, only to gasp at the sight of a woman that was clearly not her.

"Come with me, please," she told them.

"What happened to Joo Dee?" The princess asked her.

"I'm Joo Dee. I'll be your host as long as you're in our wonderful city," the woman answered, smiling the same smile that she was disgusted by on the previous woman's face.

-x-

The night air was chilly, but Yue needed it to take her mind off of everything she heard tonight.

_How are we ever going to stop the Fire Nation without the Earth King's help?_ She thought. _How are we ever going to find Appa if no one's willing to tell us anything?_

"Yue?" She heard Sokka's voice as she turned away from the open window she was looking out at the stars and moon through. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, Sokka," she answered him. "Thank you for checking up on me."

He came over to her and placed his arms around her shoulders. Yue could tell that he'd definitely grown taller in the past few days of their journey through the Earth Kingdom. It was almost impossible to tell that it was she that was older than he was by one year.

"Oh, you're still wearing your Earth Kingdom dress," Sokka noticed, seeing that, in all of the commotion, Yue had never changed out of the dress and back into her Water Tribe clothes for the warmer climates.

"Huh?" She questioned, realizing that she had forgotten to change out of the dress. "Oh, I still am. I'll just head to my room and change out of it…"

"No, wait," went Sokka, keeping her from leaving just yet. "I… Yue, would you…care to dance with me, please?"

The princess felt touched, having never danced with the one she loved before, and held out her hands for him.

"I'd be honored to dance with you, Sokka," she answered him, her eyes shining like sapphires in the sea-green ocean.

They went outside to the porch and danced to a slow, soundless song that only they could hear. It almost seemed like some sort of a special play that involved them as the only characters, with the stars and moon as their audience. Their dance had taken them right off the porch and they, subconsciously, danced down the quiet street. Anyone that saw didn't say anything, potentially mesmerized by their movements, and only watched. When they felt their feet growing tired, the couple realized that they had danced right off the porch and out the Upper Ring and right down to the Lower Ring, standing in front of a large fountain surrounded by lanterns and lamps. A sign to their left read 'Firelight Fountain'.

"I can't believe we danced all the way here," Yue uttered out. "It's like… Like magic."

"Yeah," agreed Sokka, and he lead her to the fountain to allow her to rest her feet. "How do you feel?"

"I feel fine now. Thank you, Sokka," she answered him, motioning for him to sit next to her. "Thank you for the dance. It was…extremely wonderful for me."

"Yeah… Me, too," he agreed, subconsciously placing his left hand over her right hand. "Yue?"

"Sokka?"

"I'm really glad you decided to come with us after we left the North Pole."

"Yeah… I'm glad, as well."

"We've faced many challenges on the way here: Wandering around the Foggy Swamp, getting through the Cave of Two Lovers, returning to Omashu only to find that it had taken over, the Si Wong Desert, even that girl with the blue flames. I can barely understand how we managed to get through it all."

"We're all helping the Avatar. He gives people hope…just like how you give me hope…every day up to right now."

They looked at each other again, lost in their feelings for each other, and kissed on the lips again as the sun began to rise.

A/N: Please, review this as soon as possible. I know it has some dialogue from the episode, but I had to make it long and have Yue be more involved with the plot. And Sokka mature a little due to Yue's presence within the group. Another chapter will be in the making. I don't know much about the possibility of a lemon-theme chapter with Sokka and Yue, but if it comes to that, this story will be pushed up to being mature. Peace out and Happy New Year!


	4. The Princess and the Ba Sing Se Tale

Creation began on 12-31-09

Creation ended on 01-15-10

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Ba Sing Se Tale

A/N: We become intertwined with others the more we hang with them.

It had been a week since their failed attempt to see the King, as well as learning of Ba Sing Se's conspiracy and strict rules. It was as though the people that made it their job of protecting the city made order a high priority and set limitations on the freedom that everyone had a right to. But as much as Yue and the others hated these rules, they had to abide by them if they wanted to find Appa, even if that meant that people weren't going to speak up about his whereabouts. The sooner that they found him, the better, and they'd be able to leave this place, which wasn't as peaceful as the last few good places they had been to.

As Yue, like Katara, was setting in place her hair loopies, she was as set as she would be for her day outside on the streets of the city. Everyone would be spending the day doing something that they would probably enjoy, but the question for her was, "What was out there for her to enjoy?" Only being here a week, she barely had any time to reflect on what she had liked here, although she did once admit that the crab puffs she tried back at the palace were delectable. But she couldn't subject herself to simply liking the cuisine here. With the life Tui had given her years ago as a newborn now her own to live without any fear, she wanted to do many things that she couldn't do back home.

"Hey, where's Toph?" Sokka asked, using his machete to cut away the mustache hairs on his face.

"She's still sleeping in," Yue answered him.

"I'll get her," went Katara, since Aang was still shaving his head with his Air Nomad shaving tool.

Yue decided to go with her, even though she'd already been aware of Toph's lack of hygienic habits, going into her room and seeing her lying on the floor, hair in a wild mess, skin covered in dirt, and smelling like the inside of a garbage bin.

"Uh, Toph?" Katara asked, waking up the blind girl. "Uh, aren't you gonna get set for today?"

Then, Toph spat out a spit wad over at the spittoon right near Yue's left leg, causing the princess to groan at how disgusting she could be at times.

Getting up to her feet, Toph dusted herself off and sighed, "I'm ready."

"You're not even going to clean up?" Yue asked her. "You a have a little… Actually, you have a lot of dirt on you."

"You call it dirt, but I call it a healthy coating of Earth." Toph defended.

"We need a girl's day out," Katara suggested.

-x-

"The _Fancy Lady Day Spa_?" Toph and Yue went, looking at the engraved sign on the outside of the building.

"Sounds like my kind of place," said Toph by herself, not sounding positive.

"Yep," Katara stated. "You two ready for some serious pampering?"

"It doesn't sound too bad," the princess responded, sounding almost like Sokka now.

"Okay," added Toph, "just so long as they don't try to touch my feet."

Yue didn't understand why the girl didn't want her feet to be taken care of, as they were the dirtiest part of her body. Then assumed that it had something to do with her Earthbending ability to see the world with her feet, and that anything done to them, even simple cleaning, would probably hinder her bending that allowed for sight. She had assumed properly when, several minutes later after they had gone inside, they had started off with basic pedicures that she saw Toph getting irritated by one of the attendants trying to clean the dirt off her soles…and saw her send said attendant through a wall with her bending.

_Wow, and with just her feet alone,_ she thought, unwilling to try anything to the girl's feet after seeing such a remarkable feat of Earthbending.

On the other hand, she enjoyed her own pedicure, and assumed it was because her skin was smoother than Toph's, just like Katara's, and could only sit in the chair and wait until her feet were done. About a half hour later, the three were in individual mud bathtubs, cleansing themselves of any stress they had through the use of mud. While it was considered strange for Yue, she had to admit that she had a liking for mud baths.

_This mud is two things: It's clean and it's dirty, all at the same time,_ she thought, relaxing as a woman came, carrying towels, past them.

Toph used her bending to make a scary-looking face with the mud on her face to frighten the attendant away from them.

"Ah-ha-ha!" Katara and Yue laughed.

A whole hour later, they were all sitting around in the sauna, with Toph and Katara using their bending to generate the steam instead of having to get up.

"Ah, this is the good life," said Yue, and the others agreed on that belief.

When the day was done for them there, they left with make-up on their faces. Yue's being the same as before back home, but was brighter and gave her a sense of appearing as a simple pretty girl instead of a princess.

"Wow," Toph went, "I'm not usually into that stuff, but I do feel all…girly."

"I'm glad you feel that way," said Katara. "It was about time the three of us did something nice together. Don't you think, Yue?"

"Mm-hmm," the princess agreed, but her mind was on other things, such as the world outside the walls.

As they walked toward a bridge, they past a trio of older girls that looked as though, to Yue, they wore too much make-up.

"Nice make-up," said one of them to Toph.

"Thank you," she responded back to her.

"For a clown!" The girl laughed at her, causing her face to drop to the ground.

Yue didn't like her right now and expressed it with, "I think you look like a sad clown to wear that much make-up to smile."

That brought Toph's head back up as she laughed at the girl who was just offended.

"That was funny! But this is also funny…" She told them, and then, since they were on the bridge, she used her bending to create a hole beneath the three, and sent them into the water beneath the bridge. "That was funny!"

"My hair!" The girls cried, and Katara used her bending to wash them down the stream.

"That's all, folks," she snickered, and they resumed their walk onwards. "Those girls didn't know what they were talking about."

"Yeah," agreed Yue, trying to cheer Toph up about the incident. "They must have never met a girl as beautiful as you, Toph."

"It's okay. One of the good things about being blind is that I don't have to waste my time worrying about appearances. I don't care what I look like. I'm not looking for anyone's approval. I know who I am." Toph told them.

"That's one of the things I really admire about you, Toph," the princess said to her. "You're so confident and self-assured. You never let anything get you down."

"Same here, Toph," added Katara, "and I know it doesn't matter to you, but I think you're very pretty."

"You really think I am?"

"Definitely."

"Thanks. I'd return the compliment, but I have no idea what you look like."

Yue giggled at that, but added that she was beautiful, too. The only pretty Earthbending Master she'd known so far.

"Hey, I'm gonna go wander around for a bit, but I'll see you back at the house, okay?" She told them, and then ran off.

-x-

Having more time on her hands than usual for just one day, Yue wandered around the Middle Ring's shops and saw some of the people she recognized as refugees from the Lower Ring shopping for things. The sun was high above her head as one particular shop…and one particular person caught her eye: Iroh of the Fire Nation, purchasing a small basket. With very little to risk, she decided to see what he was up to while he was here in the city.

"Uh, excuse me, sir?" She called out to him. "Hello, how are you?"

Iroh, still pleased to see that the young woman was alive, greeted her, "I am doing fine, and what of yourself, ma'am?"

"I'm having a good day. What brought you to Ba Sing Se?"

"The same thing everyone came here for: Protection."

As they walked down the street, Yue noticed that the retired general seemed to have something on his mind that required the basket he acquired. Then, the peace was disturbed by a child crying and his mother trying to calm him down. Yue saw Iroh take a liuqin from a stand and began playing a tune that seemed so ancient that it was eternal.

"Leaves from the vine, falling so slow. Like fragile, tiny shells, drifting in the foam. Little soldier boy, come marching home. Brave soldier boy, comes marching home." He sung, and the boy ceased his sobbing, even grabbing onto his beard as a form of appreciation for what the elder man had done for him. "Ye-ouch!"

"Heh-heh-heh!" The child and Yue both laughed.

A minute later, they had resumed their walk down to wherever it was that Iroh was going.

"You have quite a friendly position with children," Yue praised him. "Where did you learn how to calm a child down like that?"

"One of the skills I acquired over the years," he answered, but Yue felt that he left something about it out, and left it at that.

Much of her time with Iroh was pleasant and experience-developing: They helped a bunch of kids apologize to a large man for the minor and accidental destruction of his window, letting it slide because he didn't wish to expose a young woman to a sight of violence over something so meaningless, helped a wannabe-mugger find his confidence and determination to get control of his life back and pursue his goal of becoming a masseur, and even found out about each other's attempts at what to do when they arrived in the city, with Yue explaining that, from her previous experience with the Dai Li, there wasn't much actual freedom around, while Iroh explained that his nephew, Zuko and he were just trying to avoid Azula and the Fire Nation by hiding among the refugees, while at the same time managing a good job serving tea, much to his nephew's dislike half the time. Then, she noticed that they had arrived to a tree atop a hill, and saw Iroh setting up something. It looked like a scroll, but had a young man's face sketched on it. When he was through setting up, she got onto her knees and asked him, "Who was he?"

"My son, Lu Ten," he answered, his voice sounding so sad. "Today's his birthday."

That explained why he had the basket and other items with him to her: It was for a type of memorial service for his late son.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "What happened to him?"

"He didn't make it in the war for Ba Sing Se. It shattered me that I called the siege off and returned the remaining soldiers back to the Fire Nation. I was a very different man back then. When I was young, I had a vision that I would one day take the capital city and acted upon it. I didn't know that it would cost me my son."

The princess listened to him as he spoke of his son, admiring some of the things about him, like how he was a talented Firebender, a soldier that would go into battle for his country, an heir to a once-future Fire Lord, and one of Iroh's trusted advisors during the siege. It seemed almost weird conversing with a member of the Fire Nation on equal ground, in a setting that appeared neutral and without violence for the girl, but it also felt right: Two people from two of four nations at war, speaking as equals.

Iroh looked up to her and noticed that she seemed different from the first time they had met each other back at the North Pole. She looked so free from any burdens that she might've had there.

"I can't see much of the Moon Spirit's presence in you, anymore," he told her. "You appear as though your life is now your own."

She gave a light smile and thanked him for telling her so, feeling freer than she used to before. Every day, it felt like she was wearing chains that were disappearing every time she had done or heard something new and meaningful. It even made her heart beat stronger than it used to back home.

"I feel like I should ask you questions I feel I should know, like why Zuko is…or was trying to capture the Avatar, why your nation started a war and drove many people to places like the Lower Ring and out of their homes that are either replaced by colonies or barren, and how you can live with what has happened, but I won't ask such questions. Not because of what was or will be, but because of what is right now. I wish for you to enjoy your son's birthday, and I don't want to ruin it for you." She told him, getting off her knees and turning away. "It was…really good to see you, Mr. Iroh. Goodbye."

"You could stay a while, if you'd like," he uttered to her. "It's always a pleasure and an honor to meet a new person."

She turned back and sat down next to him.

"That song you sung to the boy back at the market," she went. "What was it about?"

"It was about a brave soldier returning home…safely, after a war was ended." He answered her.

"Could you…sing it again, please?"

"Leaves from the vine, falling so slow. Like fragile, tiny shells, drifting in the foam. Little soldier boy, come marching home. Brave soldier boy, comes marching home."

Yue then sung it herself, but had broken into tears because it was so beautiful.

"…Brave soldier comes marching home…" She cried, wiping away her tears. "I should be going now. I promised my boyfriend I would meet up with him soon. Thank you for telling me about your son and the song, Mr. Iroh. Goodbye."

She got up and walked away, leaving the aged and wise man to continue his memorial contribution to his son.

_May his brave soldier boy come marching home some day,_ she thought, wishing she had met Lu Ten before his premature passing.

-x-

If there was a sense of humor that was added to her day out in the city, it was her minutes of being with Aang, who was spending his day looking around for Appa, still determined to find him, even if it meant others here wouldn't tell him what he had a right to know. She just noticed him gliding around in the sky and then land on the ground in front of a site littered with cages or habitats that had animals in them.

"Aang, what brings you here?" She asked him.

"Yue? I was looking for Appa here at the zoo," he answered her.

The princess had never been to a zoo before, but since she was here, she might as well help him with the search for their missing bison. As they walked down the path, they noticed various animals that they never saw elsewhere: Gopher Bears, Armadillo Lions, Dragonflies, and even a Gorilla Goat. But all of them were in unkempt cages or habitats, covered in their filth, displeasing the pair.

"They all seem unhappy," Yue said to Aang, who felt the same way about them.

"They are unhappy," said a man a few feet from them.

"Are you…the one in charge?" She asked him.

"Yes, I am," he answered her. "Oh! Oh, my! You're the Avatar and the Northern Water Tribe Princess! I'm Kenji."

"Nice to meet you, Kenji," Aang responded.

"So, Kenji, why are all the animal attractions in such unkempt conditions?" Yue asked him.

"Oh, the Dai Li won't give the zoo any more funding because the children stopped coming, and the people won't come because the zoo's filthy and broke." He answered her.

It was a double-trouble type of problem to the princess' opinion for Kenji: No one would come to this place unless it was funded, but the so-called 'cultural authority' of Ba Sing Se wouldn't provide funding unless people came. If it was viewed as a type of battle, the outcome would be a lousy stalemate with no sign of change in the near future. As Aang looked over at an animal she was paying no attention to, Yue thought of just trying to live up to her hope of making a difference in the world with the life she'd been given…and an idea suddenly popped in!

"Kenji, why don't we take the animals and setup the zoo outside the Inner Wall in the Agrarian Zone?" She suggested. "There's plenty space there that's not being used for any agricultural projects at the moment? And you would have more space for your animal attractions."

"That's a great idea, Yue!" Aang agreed. "What do you think, Kenji?"

"Sure, but how are we going to get all of them outside the wall?" He asked them.

"Oh, just leave everything to me," the Air Nomad told him. "I'm great with animals."

It wasn't just five minutes later that everything went down the wrong path that they weren't intended to go down. The zoo animals were wreaking havoc across the neighborhood of the Middle Ring and never going anywhere near the Lower Ring as they were supposed to in Aang's plan. Yue, having strayed away from a Platypus Bear that was damaging the roof of one of the buildings, sighed a breath of relief, as people were getting the general idea to get away from the animals while Aang was taking care of the situation…or at least that was the general idea, but she guessed that even the most-skilled of animal trainers had their faults.

_Aang, a little bending would be helpful that could clear a pathway for these animals and keep people safe from them._ She thought, noticing a man she'd only seen once before: It was that guy with the cabbages, giving up on them as he saw animals eating them. _I feel sorry for him._

Aang showed up after leaping away from a Hog Monkey and driving away Dragonflies from some people that didn't get inside a building.

"This is so much different from how I had envisioned it would work out," he told her.

"Well, plans don't always work out the way you expect they will," she explained to him. "Thinking, preparing, even dreaming… They're all different from simply doing what they are laid out as. Hmm? Aang, do you have the whistle you use to call Appa from large distances on you?"

"Yeah," he responded, showing her the whistle, "why?"

"If it works on him, maybe, with a little luck, it'll work on these animals. Maybe your Airbending may help with it. Give it a try."

With nothing to really lose from trying, Aang threw the whistle up and took in a huge breath with his bending, catching the whistle and blowing through it, releasing a louder version of the quieter sound that Yue was familiar with, causing her to cover her ears to deafen the noise.

_I had to suggest this?_ She thought, hoping her idea would work to gather the animals toward them, and suddenly, the Dragonflies and Platypus Bear were starting to approach them. _Uh-oh._

"Here, Yue, grab on!" Aang told her, forming his Air Scooter and climbing aboard it.

She grabbed onto him and was immediately taken away from the animals that began to multiply and follow them.

"Your plan's working on them, Yue!" The Avatar cheered, and the princess realized that he was right: The animals were gathering up and following them. "All we gotta do now is lead them to the wall and out into the Agrarian Zone."

"Uh, Aang?" She asked him, concerned with riding this ball of air with him. "Are you sure this thing is safe to ride on?"

"Yes. Just don't let go of me, okay?" He answered her, and she held on tighter.

As they led the animals to the wall, Kenji was trying to convince the guards of the wall to open it up so that the animals could get out, but was only able to do so with the aid of the stampede approaching. The guards used their Earthbending to open the section of the wall up as the animals stampeded past them. Aang and Yue got away from the stampede and the Avatar let the princess off his Air Scooter to continue the job. She watched in awe as the Airbender displayed impressive Earthbending that she'd never seen before from any of the other Earthbenders. He shifted the ground to create secluded habitat areas for the animals, paths for people to walk on to see the animals, and accessories for the new zoo. When he had finished, she went back to the Lower Ring and gathered people close by to see the new zoo. They were amazed by the fact that it was larger and more-lively than the old one. Children gathered around to look at a Platypus Bear relaxing in a small pond in its habitat, an Armadillo Lion happily rolling around a large pillar of rock, and some Dragonflies suspending from a hallowed-out, wheel-like rock construction, hanging like bats.

"Aang, you were incredible with your Earthbending," the princess told the Avatar.

"Thanks, Yue," he praised her, and then Kenji showed up, happy that the new zoo had people arriving and enjoying themselves. "What do you think of your new facilities, Kenji?"

"Thank you, young Avatar, Northern Water Tribe Princess," he praised them. "You should consider working with animals for a living."

Yue looked over at a habitat that contained an Elephant Mandrill, but gasped in disappointment.

"Maybe, but I don't think everything went right," she told them, pointing to a cat that was also in the habitat with the animal. "But we got the zoo animals here, and that counts as something, right?"

Aang laughs, nervously, and then goes to collect the cat from the habitat while Yue looked over at the Rabbaroo as it hopped around its own habitat, its young looking over at her and other children. When Aang came back after returning the cat, and various pets that were escorted to the new zoo by accident, he escorted Yue back to the city's Middle Ring on his glider.

"Thank you, Aang," she told him. "I'm sorry that we didn't find Appa."

"It's okay," he responded. "Heh… Have fun with Sokka."

"Sure, and if we find anything that may lead to Appa, I'll be sure to let you know."

"Thanks, Yue," and with that, he took into the air again, heading back to the house, while she went off in search of her boyfriend.

-x-

She recognized the sound of a boomerang being thrown anywhere, and found Sokka walking down the candle-lit streets.

"And how was your day?" She asked him, making her presence known to him.

"Yue? My day was pretty down: Everything was just too perfect…except for this zoo I went to earlier in the afternoon. The guy in charge was upset that no one would come to the place while it was filthy and broke." He told her.

"The Ba Sing Se Zoo? That's where I met up with Aang earlier! We helped the zookeeper relocate the animals to outside the city's wall. I'll show you the new zoo later." She then noticed his boomerang and asked to try it.

Sokka obliged and showed her how to throw it. WHOOSH! She threw it with all of her might and watched it twirl around in the air.

"Wow, Yue. Not bad for your first try." Sokka praised her, and then caught the boomerang for her, suggesting a little more practice later on.

They pass by a man trying to handle his Ostrich Horse, but stopped at the sound of voices coming from a low window.

"Hmm?" Yue went, and Sokka looked through the window, seeing a young woman in front of a group of other young women and an elder woman and bodyguard, reading a scroll to them.

"Through all the long night, winter moon glows with bright love, sleet her silver tears." The young woman read.

"Poetry," Sokka sighed.

Yue was about to say something when the Ostrich Horse went and struck Sokka in the rear and he fell into the room with the women, startling them. She then entered the room herself and helped him up and removing the window frame that was on him.

"We are so sorry. He was struck in his rear…and we just wind up…here?" She apologized, although she felt intimidated by the older woman in front of them.

She applauded her and introduced herself: "Good to have you here. I am Madam Macmu-Ling, and this is my class."

Yue and Sokka bowed to her and the other women.

"Five, seven, then five, syllables mark a haiku, remarkable folk." Madam Macmu-Ling told them.

"Haikus are real good. We are Yue and Sokka. How do you do, ma'am?" Yue responded, speaking in haiku, holding Sokka's hand.

The ladies applauded her for her kind haiku; even Madam Macmu-Ling was impressed.

"Chittering monkeys, in the spring they climb treetops, and think themselves tall." She told them.

"Ooh," the students reacted, knowing that she had challenged them to a battle with her haiku.

Yue was lost to this, but Sokka got the message the moment he heard it and shot back with, "You think you're so smart, with your fancy, little words, this is not so hard."

"Whole seasons are spent mastering the form, they style, none calls it well," the teacher countered, and gave Yue a chance to try her form.

"We call it easy. Like we paddle our canoes, we'll paddle yours, too." She told her, and the students laughed, amazed by her haiku.

"There's nuts and there's fruits, in fall, the clinging plumb drops, always to be squashed," Macmu-Ling retorted, her voice becoming stricter against the young couple, and she took a plumb drop and squashed it in front of them.

"Squish-squash, sling that slang. We're always right back at ya, like my…boomerang!" Sokka defended Yue, even taking out his boomerang to add insult to injury, and the students laughed.

Macmu-Ling, annoyed and unable to come up with a new haiku, bowed her head in defeat and walked off the stage they were on.

"That's right, he's Sokka, it's pronounced with an 'okka', young ladies, see ya!" Yue ended with her latest haiku, and walked out of the building with her love as the girls applauded them as they left.

As soon as they were a block away, Yue exhaled a breath of relief, telling Sokka, "I never did anything like that before in my life. How well did I do, in your opinion, Sokka?"

"You passed with flying colors, Yue," he told her, and embraced her.

Then, without any type of warning, droplets of water fell on the ground around them…from a dark-grey sky. It was now raining, spoiling their moment. Sokka, being a gentleman, walked her over to a shelter where they could wait for it to either cease or let up.

"If I'd know this were going to happen, I'd brought an umbrella," he apologized to her.

"It's okay, Sokka," she forgave him. "How could any of us have known that it would rain today? And, anyhow, being with you still makes the day good."

She then kissed him as he held onto her. He kissed her back, and the sounds of the rain were completely forgotten by them. SWISH! Something flew right past them, causing them to end their kiss and see what it was: It was tiny, white, and had wings.

"You think that was Momo?" Yue asked Sokka.

"He's the only little critter we know that looks anything like that," responded Sokka, and noticed three small, cat-like creatures running away from the flying critter. "And it looks like he's chasing after some Pygmy Pumas. Let's go."

They ran after them as the rain continued to pour heavily on their heads. The chase lead them from the Upper Ring, through the Middle Ring, where Yue nearly fell and hit her head hard if it weren't for Sokka catching her and pulling her back up, and all the way down to the Lower Ring, where they found that it was Momo, but it wasn't the only thing they found: Momo, looking like he was in a state of total depression, was lying in an indent in the ground that looked like a large footprint that belonged to an equally-large animal, larger than any that they've encountered before…or were even familiar with. Yue picked up Momo and held him close to herself whilst Sokka examined the indenture. He looked up at them with a smile on his face.

"Yue, this is a footprint…belonging to Appa," he revealed to them. "This is Appa's footprint."

Yue then deduced that the pumas had led Momo to Appa's footprint after meeting the lemur.

"We gotta tell Aang and the others right now," she told them. "Sokka, you go get them, and I'll wait here with Momo."

"Are you sure?" Sokka asked her, not wanting her to get hurt.

"I'm sure. I'll be fine. Go."

He agreed and ran back to the house at the Upper Ring whilst they waited by the footprint. Less than half an hour later, he came back, accompanied by Aang, Katara and Toph, and Yue showed them the footprint, revealing that Appa was indeed in the city somewhere.

Aang, wiping the sweat and water from his face, looked up at Yue and said, "Thanks, Yue. We got a new lead on where to find him."

With the water dripping onto her chest, the princess replied, "The sooner we find Appa, the happier we'll all be. Today has been a great day for me."

A/N: My first completed chapter of this new year! Tell me what you think of this chapter. I'm also thinking of pushing the story up to being mature, as the later chapters may or will become heavier in my attempts to do more with Yue now that she lives. Long live Yue for Sokka and not Hahn, who's undeserving of her. See ya!


	5. The Princess, the Lake and the Rebel

Creation began on 01-15-10

Creation ended on 04-24-10

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess, the Lake and the Rebel

A/N: Things are definitely going to get serious with this chapter.

"Goodbye, Sokka," said Yue to her love, looking like a glowing, young goddess above the Spirit Oasis. "I'll always be with you."

Sokka, looking heartbroken, kissed her for what felt like the final time. Yue, in a weird twist of existence, saw this from afar, herself looking see-through and colorless, not understanding what was going on. It looked as though everything that almost happened in the past…did happen, and she had done something that resulted in her becoming the glowing, ethereal being that she saw herself as.

"Yue… Yue… Yue!" She heard somebody call her name, and her world become shrouded in darkness.

The next thing she knew, she was with Sokka, in the living room of their home in Ba Sing Se, on the floor, helping him draw pictures of Appa that they were going to use to find anyone that had seen the bison after finding their latest lead just two days ago. The princess, looking down at her hands and drawing of the bison, felt a slight bit peaked.

"Yue?" She looked up at Sokka, who looked concern.

"Yes?" She asked him.

"I was…just saying that you look like you should take a nap," he told her. "You…kind of zoned out for a moment, you were completely unresponsive."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I kind of slipped into a daydream," she apologized.

"What was your dream about?" He asked, curious, but that made her worried.

She didn't want to worry him about a literal nightmare of the afternoon that was a type of delusion of what nearly happened back at the North Pole, and answered with, "Living on a mountain made of water, filled with fish and penguins."

Sokka smiled and said, "That's really incredible."

Yue felt like she was in the clear and resumed her drawing of Appa, which, just like her love's, looked just like the actual bison they were looking for. Sokka's drawings were also looking like the missing bison, his first two attempts crude and sloppy after confessing to his girlfriend that he hadn't seen him in a while to have a full description of him, allowing her to help him. They then heard the front door open, and saw Aang, Katara and Toph come in, each carrying a small stack of paper.

"You won't believe this," said Aang to them.

"We found a printer to make extra posters for us," added Katara, showing a description of Appa that nearly rivaled their descriptions of him.

Yue felt envy and said, "I thought designing the posters were our job. We've already completed four copies of Appa."

Sokka showed them a drawing of Appa, and Aang was thoroughly-impressed by the description.

"Wow," he responded in awe. "These are pretty good."

"My first two tries weren't good until Yue helped me fix them," Sokka explained, showing the first two drawings, all crudely-made and looking demented.

"Let's use these four first before putting up the copies," Katara expressed, to which Yue agreed on.

"Come on!" Aang expressed, holding up some copies. "Let's get busy!"

-x-

Zuko, taking some time off from serving tea to people at the teashop, had a lot on his mind. Every day in Ba Sing Se seemed to be like a living nightmare he couldn't wake up from. It was hard enough being an enemy of the Earth Kingdom and a fugitive from the Fire Nation, but he still had the drive to want to go home, to regain all that he lost, even when everything had changed around him. Walking down the street, he past a poster that showed an animal he was quite familiar with: It was big, white, and had an arrow-like symbol on its head. The Sky Bison known as Appa, and it clearly meant one thing, which was the Avatar being in town. Returning to the poster, he plucked it off the wall it was stuck to and looked around himself, seeing no one else. Climbing a building to its roof, he gazed around the Lower Ring until he saw the head of another person he'd seen a little of: The Northern Water Tribe Princess, sticking posters to the walls around her with that Southern Water Tribe boy that he fought and defeated when they first met during the winter when the Avatar returned. Looking back at the poster of the missing bison, Zuko felt destiny had thrown him another opportunity to reclaim everything that he'd been stripped of, and he was going to take it.

-x-

Later that afternoon, when Yue and Sokka had finished their share of putting up posters around the Lower Ring, as well as running into four familiar faces (Than, his sister, Ying and Hope), they had returned to their house after treating the four to lunch and were now playing Pai Sho as Toph was bouncing a ball on the wall nearest her. Katara had shown up several minutes before they did and was resting on one of the pillows lying around the living room, while Aang and Momo had yet to return. The door opened and Aang had returned. He looked as though impatience had gotten the better of him.

"I finished dropping all the leaflets," he told them. "Has anyone come in with news about Appa?"

"It's only been a day, Aang," Yue told him. "We must be patient. Sooner or later, we'll be rewarded with what we want to know."

The Air Nomad sat down in front of the table in defeat and watched the couple play their game. Then, a rapping on the door came and he got back up.

"You're right. Patience pays off." He said, and rushed to the door, opening it to see whoever it was. "Huh?! Joo Dee?"

That name caught everyone's attention, as they saw the woman they met when they first arrived to the city. She was exactly as she was when they saw her.

"Hello, Aang, Katara, Sokka, Yue and Toph," she greeted them, her voice sounding the same when they first heard her, as well.

"What happened to you?" Sokka asked her. "Didn't the Dai Li throw you in jail?"

"Jail? Of course not. The Dai Li are the protectors of our cultural heritage." She responded.

"But you disappeared at the Earth King's party," explained Toph to her.

"Oh, I simply took a short vacation to Lake Laogai, out in the countryside. It was quite relaxing."

"But then, they replaced you with some other woman who also said her name was Joo Dee," Katara added to the conversation, while Sokka and Yue exchanged questionable glances about what had happened that night.

"I'm Joo Dee," Joo Dee told her.

"Just why are you here, exactly?" Aang asked her, then.

She held out one of their posters of Appa and said, "Dropping flyers and putting up posters isn't permitted within the city. Not without proper clearance, I'm afraid."

_Another rule in a city full of rules that strip away freedom,_ thought Yue, while Sokka responded to this new discovery, "We can't wait around to get permission for everything. We're trying to find somebody, and fast."

"You are absolutely forbidden by the rules of the city to continue putting up posters," Joo Dee cheerfully grinned at them.

Before Aang even had a chance to speak his mind about the so-called rules, Yue beat him to it and said, rather calmly, but at the same time, harshly, "Ma'am, we don't really care about Ba Sing Se's rules and we're not asking for permission from anybody. We are going to find Appa, so you should just stay out of our business. Have a nice day and don't come back, please."

The princess showed her out and shut the door, turning back to face the others, who were surprised by her controlled outburst against the woman.

"Wow, Yue," went Aang, "that was…extreme."

"You just got rid of her without even yelling," Toph added.

"I would say that something like that would come back to bite us in the blubber, but that was just too incredible, Yue," Sokka told her.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I'm just tired of the rules around here. Ba Sing Se is supposed to be a haven at a time like this, but there's too much control and not enough free will. We should just do whatever it takes to find Appa and then leave this place, rules or no rules that others may try to use on us. Either that, or we just call it quits."

"I'm all for it, Moon Maiden," Toph told her, calling her the nickname she made for her after learning about her past. "Let's break some rules!"

They all saw Toph then use her bending to demolish a portion of the wall of their house, expressing her pleasure at defying the would-be laws of the city. Even Yue was impressed at her showing free will, and that was expressed every time. Leaving out through the front door (even when going out through the hole was also an option), they set out to put up more posters and find their missing bison, determined to not let anyone stop them. But unknown to them, two agents of the Dai Li saw everything and knew they had to report it back to their boss.

-x-

Long Feng was disappointed. Extremely disappointed. Not just with the Avatar not following the code of silence, but that the Northern Water Tribe Princess forced one of his Joo Dee servants to come back in defeat. After having gone through such effort to undo the damage caused to her during the party over a week ago.

"I'm very disappointed in your work, Joo Dee," he told the woman. "I thought you could handle the situation with the Avatar and the Northern Water Tribe Princess more thoroughly."

"I'm sorry, but they don't trust me, anymore," she apologized to him. "I don't think I can keep working like this."

"Joo Dee, the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai," he told her, and her eyes became empty with no emotion in their gaze.

"I am honored to accept his invitation," she calmly stated.

"Good. Now, go await further orders."

She got up and left him alone with the two members of the Dai Li. Standing in front of the greenish fire of the library's fireplace, he pondered what to do with the Avatar and the princess.

"If they keep looking for their bison, it could upset the delicate balance we worked so hard to achieve in this city. It could even cost us control of the Earth King." He said.

"Should we take care of them?" One of the agents asked him. "The princess doesn't seem like such a threat. There's been no record of her showing any signs of Waterbending within the city."

"No," he told him. "It's much too dangerous to face them both directly. Let's see if we can handle the situation…quietly."

-x-

Helping Toph put up the posters on her own, by simply turning the stack upside down and backwards, Yue, Sokka and the blind Earthbender placed them around the neighborhood, waiting for a sign of good fortune to come to them. Walking over to a small well, Yue placed one of the posters against a wooden beam and looked at the water in a nearby bucket, but gasped at what was in the bucket: It looked like koi fish, but it was the one she was most familiar with, being Tui, but looking like she'd been cooked, just floating there in the bucket.

_Yue, you defy your destiny by being with him,_ she heard a voice say to her in her mind, whilst she tried to ignore it. _Go back to the Northern Water Tribe and take your place as the Moon Spirit._

_No, I can't go back. I want to be with Sokka and end the war,_ she thought, opening her eyes and seeing in the bucket, not Tui now, but La, the Ocean Spirit. _If I go back, the only thing I have to look forward to is…being around him again…and I don't want that. He's not the one I want to spend my life with, it's Sokka that I want._

_Pay Tui no mind, Princess Yue, _another voice, kinder in tone, told her, making her assume that the ones speaking to her were, in fact, the Moon and Ocean Spirits themselves. _Politics and maintaining a tribe that has endured one-hundred years of war are important to your home, but so is your happiness and choices. Tui hasn't properly taken the time to reflect on what is now instead of what could've been…and neither is she taking time to understand what it is that you want from your life and why you should have them for yourself._

_La, what I want is…for no one else to suffer because of this war, for it to end as soon as possible, to restore balance to the world, and to be with the ones I truly love._ Yue told him.

_You are wise and honorable to desire such, _La responded, swimming around in the bucket. _And what Iroh of the Fire Nation told you when you met him two days ago is also accurate: Your life is now your own. That is because what was, originally, foreseen by the other spirits was prevented by the Southern Air Nomad Avatar taking action that night. For that single instant of woe, I felt fear in further disharmony by the Firebender that sought to end the Water Tribes and their culture. Because that was undone, what you decide to do with your life is up to you and you alone. Tui will accept this in due time. Until then, stay with the ones you care about…and regret no choice that you'll make in the future__…and whatever you do, don't throw your life away._

Then, the black koi fish that had replaced the white one disappeared from the bucket, leaving the princess alone again.

"Don't throw your life away, Yue," she told herself, walking away from the well.

"…Tell it to some other girl, Jet!" She then heard someone, sounding a lot like Katara, shouting at someone else.

Sokka came over to get her and they, along with Toph and Aang, who had gone with Katara, had found Katara bending water at a guy that looked like, to Yue, he'd been a brat most of his life.

"Katara, what is it?" He asked his sister.

"Jet's back," Katara told them. "He says he thinks he can help us, but I don't believe him. We can't trust anything he says."

But Sokka responded, "But we don't even know why he's here."

"I don't care why he's here. Whatever his reason, it can't be good." She told him, making it clear to Yue that she didn't like this guy.

"I'm here to help you find Appa," said the guy, Jet, as he was called by Katara, to them, and then he revealed to them one of the posters they were using.

"Katara, we have to give him a chance," Aang told her.

"I swear, I've changed, everyone. I was troubled and always let my anger get out of control. I don't even have the others with me, anymore. I've put it all behind me."

"I don't believe you," went Katara to him. "You're lying."

Then, Toph pushed past her and placed her one of her palms on the wall behind Jet.

"Actually, he's not lying," she revealed to them.

"How can you tell?" Sokka and Yue both asked her.

"I can feel his breathing and heartbeat. Whenever people lie, there's a physical reaction. He's telling the truth." She explained to them.

Yue then looked to Katara and told her, "We don't have any other leads, Katara. If he says he can take us to Appa, we should at least check it out."

Katara gave in and responded, "Alright…but we're not letting you out of our sight (points a stabbing finger at Jet)!"

As they followed Jet toward an old warehouse, Yue, who kept throwing subtle glances at Katara, seeing her expression as that of immense anger, and tapped Sokka on his shoulder.

"Yue?" He asked her once she got his attention.

"What is it with Katara right now?" She asked him. "I've never seen her this angry before except when we were forced to run away from that trio of Fire Nation girls that day they were chasing us."

Sokka sighed and explained, "When we met Jet, we had thought he was a good guy, somebody that had also been hurt by the Fire Nation long ago. While Katara and Aang trusted him right from the start, I didn't, and had a good reason to: He was attacking Fire Nation people that weren't even, directly, involved in this war, and had tried to flood an entire town full of them before I could tell them of his intentions. I told the people of the impending flood and had them clear the town before they got hurt, proving to Katara and Aang that Jet wasn't as noble as they thought he was in the beginning, and we had left him stuck to a tree the day we left. I guess for Katara, the anger over the betrayal runs deeper than what was seen and heard."

"Was this guy…her boyfriend or something when they first met?" She asked.

"I don't think so," he told her back.

Yue then guessed that, while Katara could hold a grudge against the Fire Nation for the pain they had inflicted upon the world, she could hold larger grudges on those she knew from whichever nation they were from. There was even something in her heart that told her that the young Waterbending Master had a grudge against Zuko.

As they entered the warehouse, they saw only a few sacks and a pile of rope and canvas lying around.

"This is the place," Jet told them, and they started looking around.

"There's nothing here," Aang and Yue both said at the same time.

"If this is a trap," said Katara to Jet, preparing to Waterbend at him.

"I told you that I work nearby this place," he defended himself. "Two guys were talking about some giant, furry creature they had here, so I figured it must've been Appa."

"He was here!" Toph yelled to them, showing a handful of white fur.

"We missed him," Aang said, sadly.

"They just took that big thing yesterday," they all heard the voice of an elderly man nearby, sweeping the ground away from them. "Shipped him out to some island. About time, too. I've been cleaning up fur and various, uh, leavings all day."

Aang kept him from leaving and demanded, "What island?! Where's Appa?!"

"A foreman said that some rich, royal-type on Whale Tail Island bought him up. I guess for a zoo or such, though it could've been the meat would be good." He answered him.

"We've gotta get to Whale Tail Island." He turns around to face Sokka and Yue, who were looking at a map of the Four Nations. "Where's Whale Tail Island, anyway?"

Yue, with gloom on her face, answered, "Far, Aang. Very far."

Setting the map on the ground, Sokka pointed to said island, which seemed to be part of the Southern Air Temple's territory.

"It's near the South Pole, almost all the way back home," Sokka stated to them.

"Aang, it'll take us weeks just to get to the tip of the Earth Kingdom. And then we'll need to find a boat to get to the island," added Katara.

Yue could barely believe it herself, and they all had a hard time just trying to get to this part of the Earth Kingdom without Appa. Now, they had to go all the way to the island that said Flying Bison was going to just to reclaim him. But something in her heart told her that something about this seemed too unusual…and way too untenable. While it might've been good to get away from the city, they would've been at the disadvantage of not being able to handle the Fire Nation during the day of the solar eclipse if they had to travel for weeks.

"I don't care," she heard Aang say to Katara. "If Appa's there, we have to at least try."

"It must be nice to visit an island," the elderly man sighed. "I haven't had a vacation is years."

"Um, don't you have any days off from work?" Yue asked him. "You look like you should be a veteran or something."

"Or the kinda guy that still has some sweeping to do," said Katara, irritated with the man's presence.

"Shuffle on, I get ya. No more need for Old Sweepy." The man said, leaving them alone.

_Old Sweepy?_ Yue thought. _Old Sweepy isn't a name, it's an insult to one's age and occupation._

"Well, then, let's get going to find Appa," said Sokka. "We can come back here later."

"I'll come with you," went Jet.

"We don't need your help, anymore," Katara cut him off, intent on not letting him go with them.

"Why won't you trust me?" He asked her, walking away to follow Aang and Sokka.

"Gee, I wonder?" She questioned, huffing and holding her head high.

Yue and Toph looked at her like she had a problem.

"Katara, was this guy your boyfriend or something?" The princess asked her.

"What? No!" The Waterbending Master responded, but Toph snickered at her.

"I can tell you're lying," she then told them, and Yue looked at Katara again with some sense of doubt.

Katara storms off while Yue asked Toph if what she said was even necessary for them to hear.

-x-

"…If we take the train, we can make it to the Outer Wall in just an hour, but then we'll have to walk," Sokka explained to the group as they went down the streets of the Lower Ring.

"Don't worry," said Aang in response. "On the way back, we'll be flying."

"We'll finally leaving Ba Sing Se," exclaimed Toph, showing her relief at leaving. "Worst city ever!"

Yue couldn't help but chuckle at her expressions of happiness, and wouldn't have minded hearing any other complaints the Earthbending Master had about the city and its flaws.

"Jet!" She and the others stopped walking, turning to see that there were two people approaching them: One looked like a little girl that dressed in a manner that wasn't so different from Toph's style, just having a lot of black, and the other being a tall, perhaps skinny young boy with a bow and arrows on his back that looked as though he didn't speak much, if any at all.

"I thought you said you didn't have your gang, anymore," said Katara to him, accusing him again.

"I don't," Jet defended, but was then hugged by the girl that called his name.

"Longshot and I were so worried," she told him. "How'd you get away from the Dai Li?"

"The Dai Li?!" Everyone else gasped.

"I don't know what she's talking about," Jet defended himself again, but Yue couldn't see past his claims and the woe of the girl that had hugged him.

"He got arrested by the Dai Li over a week ago," the girl explained. "We saw them drag him away."

"Why would I be arrested? I've been living peacefully here ever since I arrived."

Toph got down on her knees and palms and felt the ground, bewildered.

"This doesn't make any sense," she went. "They're both telling the truth."

"What?" Yue asked.

"That's impossible," said Katara, "they can't both be telling the truth."

But then, Yue realized the harsh truth of the situation.

"No, it's not impossible," she told them. "Toph can't tell who's lying…because they both think they're telling the truth (points her left index finger over at Jet). The Dai Li must've did something to Jet."

"Like brainwashed him," added Sokka, partially amazed that his girlfriend had said half of what he was going to say when he himself realized what was going on.

"That's crazy," Jet defended. "That's not true. Stay away from me!"

But they cornered him and Sokka knocked him out cold in front of them.

-x-

It wasn't until it got dark out that they were all gathered in an apartment in the Lower Ring that the girl, whom later revealed to Yue was named Smellerbee and Longshot were living in, with Jet tied to a chair to keep from acting out against them.

"I'm guessing that the Dai Li used Jet to try and mislead us and make us leave the city," the princess told them.

"And that janitor was part of the plot, too," added Katara.

"That has to mean that Appa's still in the city," went Aang. "Maybe in the same place they took Jet. Where did they take you?"

"Nowhere," Jet answered them. "I…I don't know what you're talking about."

"We need to find a way to jog his real memories."

"Maybe Katara could kiss him," suggested Toph. "That might bring something back."

"How about you kiss him, Toph?" Katara shot back, annoyed by the suggestion.

"Hey, it was just an suggestion," she defended herself.

"A very bad one," said Yue and Aang, although Aang's tone sounded peeved, whilst Yue's was just devoid of any negativity.

"I think I got an idea," went Sokka, grabbing a piece of straw from a mattress he was sitting on and sticks it into Jet's mouth. "Well? Anything?"

"I don't think it's working," Jet told him, and spat the straw out onto the floor.

"Try to think of something from your past, something that triggers your emotions," Toph suggested.

"The Fire Nation, Jet," said Smellerbee to him. "Remember what they did to your home, you family."

"Close your eyes, try to picture it," added Aang, and Jet closed his eyes.

Yue had closed her eyes, as well, unsure of why she was doing so, but it seemed to help her picture how bad the war the Fire Nation had started was devastating the world: Soldiers of red and black, flames being shot out their hands at whatever they intended to hit, homes being razed to the ground, people running for their lives, a tear-stricken young boy that reminded her of the present-day Jet, the leader of the Rough Rhinos group, and Long Feng Earthbending a column of rock out of the ground and hurting Jet. Wait a minute! Yue didn't see this happening at all, and Jet, moments ago, looked fine. The setting had also changed: It was a dark room, with light from only these green stones or crystals that hung above them on the ceilings, and she saw her friends fighting the Dai Li.

_What's going on?_ She thought, confused by this because nothing like this has even happened yet.

"Prevent a fatal happening for one person, and you change everything for the new future," a lady's voice had uttered, and the princess turned her head from the fallen Freedom Fighter to the spirit of Avatar Kyoshi, the tallest and oldest of all the Avatars, both past and present, standing beside her. "Don't throw your life away."

Soon enough, she found herself back in the room with Sokka and the others, and saw Katara using her Waterbending on Jet's head.

"Oh… They took me to a place underwater, like a lake or something," Jet revealed.

"Wait! Remember what Joo Dee said to us earlier? She said she had taken a short vacation to this Lake Laogai place out in the country." Sokka added.

"That's the place! Their base of operations is at Lake Laogai."

-x-

_So, this is Lake Laogai,_ thought Yue, staring at the large body of water that made up the lake they were attempting to trespass upon. _It looks so beautiful, but as my father once told me, even beautiful things can be bad. This lake is no different._

"So, where's this secret base at around here?" Sokka asked Jet.

"Under the lake…I think," he answered him.

"There's a tunnel right over there, near the shore," went Toph, pointing them to her right as she walked over to said shore.

Yue and the others watch as she Earthbends and a pathway rose from the water. Toph then went over to a stone disc that was in front of them and bended that aside, leaving only a dark opening with a latter of stone steps leading down. They followed the dimly-lit hall of the steps until they reached the bottom, hearing water dripping and what sounded like some sort of tiny creature squawking around. Yue held onto Sokka's left arm as they walked down the large tunnel.

"It's all coming back to me now," said Jet to them.

Sokka and Yue stopped in front of a partially-open doorway and peeped into its room, their eyes widening in horror at what was inside it: A Dai Li agent and about five rows of young women that were dressed in the same manner as Joo Dee!

"I'm Joo Dee," said the agent to the women, "welcome to Ba Sing Se."

"I'm Joo Dee," copied the women, "welcome to Ba Sing Se."

Unable to stomach this madness, the princess left with Sokka.

"They're like…like dolls, Sokka," she told him. "Worse than dolls, even: Puppets."

"It's a conspiracy, Yue," he explained to her. "The Dai Li, Joo Dee being an alias for multiple women that have been brainwashed, Long Feng being in control of the Earth Kingdom through the shadows of his position as a Grand Secretariat and the Earth King not knowing about it, and Appa being here are all the evidence that may help in saving the Earth Kingdom from the Fire Nation."

Rejoining the others, they approached a door that looked as though it led to a chamber large enough to store Appa inside of, and entered the room, seeing only a dimly-lit chamber, large enough to store anything, but there was no Sky Bison anywhere, only… Instead of a large bison, up in the air, suspended by several chains, hung the Dai Li…and Long Feng. The Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se displayed a look of perpetual anger toward them that was masked by his calm-looking appearance.

"Now, that's very different," said Sokka, taking out his club and machete, in case of a battle that might take place in this chamber.

Long Feng stepped forward and told them, "You have made yourselves enemy of the state. Take them into custody."

At that moment, the Dai Li agents all dropped from ceiling's chains and began to approach them. One fired two blocks of rock from the ground at the group, particularly at Katara and Yue, but Toph used her bending to shatter them in midair. More Dai Li soon followed, and the Water Tribe Princess saw that it was a small war with elite Earthbenders that were supposed to be protecting the city's cultural heritage fighting against the band of young warriors that just wanted the war to end.

Then, suddenly, her perception began to see the happenings in slow, soundless motion: Sokka and Katara had smashed two of the Dai Li's rock gloves before they even had a chance to capture them, Aang dealt a serious-but-non-lethal blow to several agents with a powerful blast of wind, sending them up into the air before they fell onto their backs, Longshot and Smellerbee, despite their size and appearances, were also able to incapacitate some Dai Li agents with just a few arrows and their bare hands, while Jet disable four of them with his hook swords. The next thing she noticed was that Long Feng was trying to make a quick getaway, but not while she saw him.

"Long Feng's escaping!" She told the others as she chased after him, hoping that her previous vision from last time, about him being an Earthbender, was untrue. "Stop, Long Feng!"

As she chased him down a tunnel of green lanterns, she felt something happening elsewhere, but couldn't understand what it was without proper clarity. When she, along with Aang, Sokka and Jet caught up with the secretariat in another large chamber, she felt that he would be beaten and his control over the Earth Kingdom shattered.

"Alright, Avatar," he went, as though he were trying to threaten them, "you've caused me enough problems, you and your friends. This is your final chance…if you desire your bison back."

_So he DOES have Appa, _thought Yue, unable to believe this.

"Agree to leave the city now, and I'll waive all charges against you…and you may have your lost pet returned to you," Long Feng told them, but Jet raised his swords up against the man.

"You're in position to bargain with any of us," he told him.

"Oh, am I not?" The secretariat asked.

Aang brandished his staff and answered, "You're definitely not, Long Feng."

Then, he uttered the words, "Jet, the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai." and the Water Tribe princess looked over at Jet, whose eyes had a funny look to them.

"I am honored to accept his invitation," he soon said, and then swung his swords at Sokka and Aang with an almost-deadly stance. "Haaahh!"

Sokka dodged the swings and Aang tried to defend them from the swords with his staff whilst Yue thought of ways to stop Jet from doing what he had no control of, anymore, like he'd become what the first Joo Dee and those other Joo Dee women were turned into: Mere Puppets.

-x-

"…You're all mine now," said Zuko to Appa, having found the missing Sky Bison under the lake, chained to the ground to prevent him from escaping.

Suddenly, the chamber door behind the Blue Spirit-clad Prince of the Fire Nation, and revealed…

"Uncle?" He questioned, surprised that Iroh had found him here.

"So, the Blue Spirit," Iroh had said, feigning puzzlement. "I wonder who could be behind that mask that I already know quite well?"

Zuko then removed the mask and questioned his uncle on what he was doing here at Lake Laogai.

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Iroh told him. "What do you plan to do with the Avatar's bison now that you have it? Keep it locked away in our new apartment in the Upper Ring? Should I put on a pot of tea for it?"

"First I have to get it outta here," Zuko told him, tightening his grip on his Dao swords.

"And then what?!" Iroh asked, now angry at his nephew. "Don't you see, Zuko? You never think these things through! This is exactly what happened when you tried to capture the Avatar at the Northern Water Tribe: You had him, but then you had nowhere to go!"

"I would've figured something out!" Zuko argued.

"No! If his friends hadn't found you, shown you mercy, you would've frozen to death!"

"I know my own destiny, Uncle!"

"Is it really your own destiny…or a destiny that someone else has tried to force on you long ago?"

"Stop this, Uncle! I must do this!"

"Please," Iroh pleaded, "I'm begging you, Prince Zuko! It's time for you to look inward, and start asking yourself the big questions: Who are you…and what do you want?"

In anger, Zuko threw his swords to the ground and Firebended streams of intense flames at Appa, but the only thing they hit were his restraints, slicing them into bits, and freeing the bison.

"You'd better get outta here," he told the animal, and watched it leave.

-x-

_"Who are you…and what do you want?"_ Yue had thought she heard those words recently, but couldn't place where she had heard them, spending the last fifteen seconds gracefully dodging Jet's hook swords. _Jet, come on! Don't you ever tire? You can't keep this up forever! Please, stop!_

"Jet, it's us!" Aang pleaded. "You don't have to do this!"

"I'm afraid he doesn't have a choice, anymore," said Long Feng to the Airbending Master, whilst Jet stopped for a few moments to catch his breath before fighting again.

Then, Yue tried to reason with the young warrior after seeing that he had slowed down some.

"Jet, we're all friends here. Please, look inside yourself. That man can't make you do this. You're a Freedom Fighter. You swore to help people whose lives have been hurt by the Fire Nation in this war that's been raging for over one-hundred years. Don't let him prevent you from making a difference."

"Do your duty, Jet," ordered Long Feng. "Do it now!"

But Jet didn't move; his eyes were like tiny beads that moved in every direction, as if trying to decide on a course to take on a map…and then, like a mirror had been shattered, he turned to face the man and hurled one of his swords at his head.

Long Feng intercepted the attack and dodged it, while at the same time using his Earthbending to send a wave of stone at him.

Yue, remembering what the spirit of Avatar Kyoshi had told her, saw this and ran over to Jet in the hopes that she could prevent what she had seen in her vision.

"Yue!" Sokka gasped.

BASH! The wave stopped at Feng's will, but he couldn't see if it hit Jet or not because of the smokescreen it made in the process until it cleared away, and when it did, he received his shock of shocks. Jet…had survived the attack! Yue had reached him in time, with only an extra second, and knocked him aside before the wave made contact with them. But Feng wasn't sure if the princess had gotten hurt instead by his attack, and wasn't aiming to find out.

"Foolish children," he uttered in anger as he fled again through a tunnel nearby. "You've chosen your own demise."

Yue, uncertain about herself, asked Jet, "Are you…alright?"

Jet looked up at her and answered, "I can't feel my legs on account of you being on them, heh-heh."

She got off and watched him get up, glad that he looked like he didn't have a single injury on him.

"I'm sorry you had to risk yourself to protect me," he apologized to her.

"Don't be," she responded. "I'm just glad you're still alive."

Sokka and Aang, along with the others that had just arrived, went over to them and found that Jet was okay because of Yue.

"Yue, your leg," said Sokka, noticing that her right leg looked bruised.

She tried to stand on it, but it hurt when she did, so Katara tried healing the bruise with her bending.

"It's not all that bad," she told Yue when she was done.

"We better get outta here," went Jet. "Long Feng may have taken Appa with him."

"They're in here!" They heard voices from down the other tunnel they came through.

"More Dai Li agents," Smellerbee gasped. "You guys go on ahead; we'll handle them."

"Are you sure about that?" Sokka asked her.

"You saved Jet," went Longshot, speaking for the first time since they met. "Go save Appa. There's no time to wait."

They all agreed and went on, with Jet, Smellerbee and Longshot staying behind to stop the rest of the Dai Li agents.

"Don't worry, Katara," Jet told her. "I'll be fine."

Katara nodded and went ahead with the others, whilst Toph told Yue and Sokka what her Earthbending revealed to her.

"He's not lying," she whispered to them, and that put a smile on Yue's face.

Running back up to the surface of the lake, they spotted Long Feng running away.

"Do you think we can catch up with him?" Sokka asked Aang.

The Avatar looked behind them and said, "I don't think it's gonna matter right now. Look!"

Behind them were at least twelve Dai Li agents that were gaining on them until they were completely surrounded by the so-called cultural authority of Ba Sing Se, which bent large walls of stone in front and behind them, trapping them between three walls and a large body of water.

Feng walked up in between two agents and told them, "Resistance is futile. Surrender immediately."

Just then, Momo began acting strange and flew away.

"What's wrong with Momo?" Katara asked as he flew into the piercing gaze of the sun.

Suddenly, a large silhouette of a creature came flying down. It appeared in the shape of a six-legged, two-horned animal with a massive tail, which gave the impression of an ancient creature that was the only one of its kind to survive in the coldness of isolation with its master for a century.

"It's Appa!" Aang gasped in excitement.

Appa then smashed his way through the two walls and sent the Dai Li flying into the water of the lake. Aang and Toph then bent the side of the cliff that six Dai Li were clinging onto and sent them into the lake, as well. When all the remaining agents saw this, they fled, leaving Long Feng alone to face the wrath of the group.

When Appa landed in front of him, displaying rage at being held a prisoner by him for so long since he arrived in the city, Feng glared back at him and uttered, "I can handle you all by myself, you disgusting animal. Ha!"

He Earthbended a column to launch himself at the bison to kick it, but Appa intercepted and bit his leg with his mouth, as hard as his teeth would allow.

"Aaaahh!" Feng gasped, and was then hurled by the bison into the lake. "Aaaahh!"

SPLASH! The sound of him hitting the water was like a subtle giggle to the children, and they saw Appa spit out a shoe, assuming it was Feng's that got left in his mouth before sitting down.

They all threw themselves onto the bison in happiness as they felt their hearts swell to twice their natural sizes at the presence of their largest friend.

"Yeah! Appa!" Yue and Sokka cheered, hugging his legs on opposite ends of the bison whilst Aang hugged his head.

"I missed you, buddy," he told him, shedding tears.

"Hmmm," Appa responded back to the Airbender, happy to be returned to him after what felt like an eternity of separation, and not forgetting the young Firebender that made this reunion so.

Now, flying over the lake, all of them, including Jet, Smellerbee and Longshot, were pleased to have defeated the Dai Li and Long Feng, and needed to think of other things to do while in Ba Sing Se. Katara offered Jet a handshake, which he accepted, happy that they were friends again. Momo flew onto Yue's left shoulder and licked her cheek, earning a giggle from the princess, who was just happy that she had done so much good because of her continued existence on the mortal plane. She had helped in finding Appa, saved Jet from an unforgivable fate, and still had Sokka by her side.

Meanwhile, at the original entrance to the underwater base of the lake, Zuko and Iroh had climbed out and watched the bison, with his passengers, flying away in the freedom of the air.

"You did the right thing, nephew," Iroh congratulated Zuko, who looked at his Blue Spirit mask. "Leave it behind."

Zuko nodded in agreement and tossed it into the water, letting it sink into the darkness of its abyss, and while disappointed in blowing his uncertain opportunity of regaining some of what he lost by letting Appa go free, he wasn't ashamed of returning him to the Avatar and his friends. It just felt right to do so, like it was meant to be.

"Let's go home now," he told his uncle, referring to their apartment back in the Lower Ring, as they still hadn't moved into their new apartment in the Upper Ring yet.

"Gladly," Iroh responded in agreement, and they left the lake, not wanting to come back to again for a long time.

A/N: Well, here you go! I'm sorry it took so long, but with my college life and work life, I rarely find the time to complete something I love a lot. And for those that review that ask if there's a romance between Aang and Katara, you can relax…for that's something that will remain like it did in the original series. For those that seek a romance between Suki and another person, I shall require your assistance since a review brought that up. I had an idea set between an unthinkable type of romance that was never viewed in the cartoon, but I'll leave that up to your imagination to figure out. Tune in for the next story, which I hope to get working on in due time. There's just one bold possibility after another, and now that Jet's living longer, who knows what'll happen. Peace, yo!


	6. The Princess and the King

Creation began on 04-24-10

Creation ended on 06-13-10

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the King

A/N: I've seen some trailers of _The Last Airbender _film that's coming up, and I enjoy them a lot. The background music in the action scenes, they're superb. Anyway, now that Jet's still alive, the future is constantly on the massive change. Onward to the future! Princess Yue forever!

"Every last one of us missed you, Appa," went Yue to the large bison, "more than you'll ever know. Now, open wide."

Appa opened his massive mouth and the princess threw in a large handful of freshly-picked berries from a nearby berry bush. There were many berry bushes since the group had landed on a side of Lake Laogai that possessed them to begin with. It was also necessary since it was discovered Appa wasn't being fed properly by the Dai Li during his imprisonment, feeding him only hay.

Momo came up from behind Yue and hugged Appa, while at the same time eating a few berries from the bush they were by, as Sokka, Katara, Aang and Toph were conversing about what to do now.

"Come on, we escaped the Dai Li and we got Appa back," Sokka tried to reason with his sister. "I'm telling you, we should head to the Earth King and tell him of our plan. We're seriously on a roll."

"One hour of good after more than a week of trouble in Ba Sing Se isn't what I call much of a roll." Katara told him.

"But we can build on it. If we ever want to invade the Fire Nation when the eclipse happens, end the war before Sozin's Comet arrives and restore balance to the world, we'll need the Earth King's support."

"What makes you think we'll get it?" Toph asked him, sitting on the ground. "In case you haven't noticed, whenever we try something, things don't go our way much of the time."

Then, Yue stepped in and said, "We could still try the invasion plan, but with a smaller army. There are Earthbenders unaffiliated with the army and Water Tribe warriors of both the North and South Pole, and you did once say that there are at least a few Fire Nation people around the Earth Kingdom that have severed their ties from their nation. We could try finding them and prepare… Oops. Never mind."

"No, Yue, finish that suggestion," said Sokka to her. "I like the idea."

"I just reminded myself of Hahn when I thought about the Water Tribes," she confessed, showing that it upset her to recall that particular individual of her tribe, and Sokka himself was upset about that boy that she was almost married to before ever leaving to travel with them.

However, before they eventually left the North Pole, neither of them or her father had mentioned Hahn after he had gone to try and defeat Zhao before he had broken into the city with his soldiers during the siege to try and kill Tui; therefore, they didn't know about his current status: Well or unwell. While Yue didn't wish Hahn any ill health, she didn't have any feelings for him at all, and felt like a heavy burden had been taken off her hands when she, against her tribe's customs, removed the betrothal necklace and replaced it with the choker possessing the carved fish that Sokka gave her. Sokka, on the other hand, while not wishing any ill health to the jerk without a soul, prayed that, in the future, the boy wouldn't have any ideas of wanting to be with Yue while he himself was still with her.

"The more you talk about this Hahn," went Toph, only knowing scarce information about the guy, "the more I think of him being a very bad person."

_And she doesn't even know the half of it all, _thought Yue and Sokka in unison. _Hahn was more for status than for companionship._

"Sokka, Long Feng is in control of the entire city," went Katara, still unconvinced about going to see the Earth King. "His conspiracy with the Dai Li is just too powerful for any of us to deal with. I say we just keep flying and leave this horrid place behind us for good."

"I'm with sweetness," added Toph. "I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se to last me a lifetime…and I can't even see!"

"But now that we have Appa back, there's no stopping us from telling the Earth King about the whole conspiracy and the war," said Aang.

"That's true," agreed Yue.

"See? They're with me." Sokka told his sister. "It's the whole reason we came here to begin with, and we gotta at least try."

Katara then thought to herself, _Well, I guess if the Earth King knew the truth, then things might change for the better._

"I don't trust the new positive Sokka," went Toph, rising to her feet and then pointed her finger at him accusingly. "Long Feng went and brainwashed you, didn't he?!"

Yue giggled and asked her why would anyone want to brainwash Sokka, claiming that it would probably be impossible to do so, having already a hard head with an even-harder heart.

Suddenly, Jet came running over to them, saying that he, Longshot and Smellerbee had seen three Earth Kingdom ships off in the distance, believing that they could be the Dai Li searching for them.

"Well, sis?" Sokka asked Katara again. "What'd you say?"

Katara then responded, "Let's see the Earth King."

-x-

As much as Yue enjoyed the feeling that flight presented her, this current feeling on flying on Appa without his saddle was just very scary, reminding of how much she missed the saddle, since holding onto Appa's fur was challenging.

"Can we please get the saddle when we're done here?!" Toph had pleaded. "Riding bareback is too terrifying for me!"

"Yeah, we definitely need the old saddle later," Katara had agreed with her.

High over the city, they descended right toward the Earth King's palace. Yue couldn't believe that, while looking from the air, the whole place that was surrounded by a circular wall was the Earth King's palace; it made the Northern Water Tribe pale in comparison to it.

"The Earth King's chambers should be in the very center of the palace," said Sokka to everyone.

"We gotta be careful," Katara told her brother, "Long Feng has probably warned the King that we're coming to see him."

"Yeah," went Smellerbee, and pointed out the reason why. "Rock!"

Appa then dodged a large rock that almost hit him, making Toph worry as she tightened her grip on his back fur.

"What was that?!" She asked them.

Sokka and Jet looked down and saw rows of large boulders ready to be hurled into the air.

"Surface-to-air rocks," said Jet.

"More incoming!" Sokka yelled, and Appa dodged those, as well.

There were Royal Earthbender Guards, warriors meant to serve only the Earth King himself, and thet were demonstrating the use of large rocks as a method of attacking intruders.

Yue noticed Toph losing her grip on Appa's fur and grabbed onto her, keeping her set firmly on the bison's back.

"Thanks," Toph told her.

"Anytime," she responded, just in time to see Aang shatter a large rock with the back of his right hand without even looking away from the front of him. _Incredible._

Soon after, another boulder was sent directly at them from the front, and Aang split it in half with his staff, saving them from further obstruction. The Air Nomad was demonstrating his determination to see the Earth King, regardless of the interference that was laid out in front of the group. He then leapt off Appa's left horn and plunged downward with his staff, triggering an Earthbending attack so great that the ground around him was destabilized in a ring of unsteadied blocks that made the ground up, and made several of the guards fall backwards with their armored Ostrich Horses or retreat to strengthen their remaining defenses. When Appa landed on the ground and everyone else got off, the Avatar lead them hard toward the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace.

The guards came back with a vengeance and launched smaller blocks of earth at them, but Aang and Toph blocked and deflected them as they advanced further, with Katara and Jet using their Waterbending and Hook Swords, respectively to disable the guards beside them with little to no casualties made.

"Sorry," Katara apologized to some of them, performing the Water Whip on their chests as they fell to the ground, and she winced from the force she had used.

Toph had used an Earthbending move that sent the ground up like dominoes and made them fall on the guards they were positioned in front of before they could retaliate, causing them great agony.

"Sorry, we really just need to speak with the Earth King," apologized Katara and Yue to them.

Up ahead, Sokka saw several of the guards, less than those they had faced up front, had levitated a pair of Badgermole statues set on the large flight of steps, and sent them flying at them.

"Uh-oh!" He cried out, and Aang and Toph, through their combined Earthbending, created a giant shield from the ground in front of them, protecting the whole group from the statues as they made contact and shattered into pieces instantly and were sent in random spaces. "Nice move, you two."

Aang then blew the other guards that came away with his Airbending while Katara charge to get to the other side of the small moat that was in front of the stairs, her Water Whips leaving the guards that came her way wet with misery at being defeated by a young girl. As the others crossed the moat, Aang froze the water the Earthbenders were now stuck in to prevent further obstruction, while Toph bended the entire stairs into a smooth slide, causing the few guards remaining to lose their footing and fall down the slide. She and Aang then bended an elevator-like platform and took the group up, with Appa aiding with his massive tail providing a little propulsion to their bending.

"Seriously, we're actually on your side," Yue told the guards as they slid past them.

As the elevator reached the top deck, Sokka and Jet disabled the four guards left outside before they had a chance to counter with their bending, allowing the group of young heroes to enter the palace unhindered, where they encountered about thirty more guards, who tried hopelessly to repel them, but were at the mercy of Toph and Aang, whose own bending proved greater than theirs ever could've been in the years they had to hone it.

"Toph, which way is it to the Earth King's throne room?" Sokka asked.

"How should I know?" She countered him as she blocked seven of the guards that didn't know the meaning of giving up. "I'm still voting that we just leave this place!"

Yue took Sokka and Smellerbee to go find the throne room, opening door after door after door, finding no such throne.

"Your Majesty?" Yue asked, opening one door, and finding a woman in front of a mirror, wearing an elegant dress, looking back at her.

"Aaaahh!" She screamed. "Burglar!"

The princess quickly closed the door before saying, "Sorry, ma'am. Wrong door."

Two minutes later, when all the guards were defeated, Sokka and Yue were standing in front of a large door that looked too fancy to lead them to nowhere.

"Stand back," said Aang to them, and he used an Airbending move to blow the door open, revealing a large throne room illuminated by pillars of glowing rocks that gave off a green light, along with a chandelier that gave off the same glow, and sitting on the throne itself was the mighty ruler of the whole Earth Kingdom: The Earth King.

In complete contrast to Yue's original perception of the great ruler, the King was a bespectacled young man, wearing simple robes and a crown and necklace made of jade, almost as though he were simply playing the role of a king instead of being one. But regardless of whether or not this was the Earth King or not, this was the man they all came to see, and weren't leaving Ba Sing Se until he heard them out.

Suddenly, the King was accompanied by none other than Long Feng, which put a frown on Jet's face when he saw him.

"We're here because we need to talk to you, Your Majesty," went Aang to the King.

"They're here to overthrow you," retorted Feng to the King.

"That's not true, sir," went Sokka.

"We're on your side. You have to trust us." Katara told him.

"You invade my palace," the Earth King spoke, "lay waste to my guards, break open my fancy door, and you expect me to trust you?"

"He's kinda right with that point," said Toph, sardonically.

"If you're really on my side, then drop your weapons and stand down," the King told them.

Soon enough, one by one, with the exclusion of Yue and Smellerbee, who had no weapons to begin with, Aang, Sokka, Katara, Toph, Jet and Longshot dropped theirs to the ground in front of the King.

"See?" Aang asked him. "We're all friends, Your Earthiness."

The Earth King looked unimpressed, still frowning at them grimly, and with a wave of his arm, Long Feng had his Dai Li agents surround the group and retrain them with their stone gloves and metal cuffs.

-x-

_This cannot be happening,_ thought Yue, now cuffed along with Sokka and the others in the Earth King's throne room. "This is a foul move, Long Feng!"

"Detain the assailants," Feng said to the agents.

"We dropped our weapons!" Jet shouted.

"We're your allies, Earth King!" Sokka added.

"Make sure that the Avatar, the Northern Water Tribe Princess and their friends never see the light of day again." Feng told his agents, but the Earth King had something more to say.

"The Avatar and Northern Water Tribe Princess?" He went. "You two are the Avatar and Northern Water Tribe Princess?"

His question was directed at Katara and Jet, whom he pointed over at, and whom said nothing, leaving Sokka to correct him.

"No, that's my sister, Katara and our friend, Jet," he went, and then looked over to his girlfriend and Air Nomad friend. "They're the Avatar and Northern Water Tribe Princess, respectively."

Yue, despite her current predicament, along with Aang, introduced themselves with a curtsey and wave of hands, respectively.

"Your Majesty/Over here," they said, the princess being humble, while the soul of the planet in human form being humorous, but in the process, he effortlessly escaped his rocky bonds to show his hands, before letting them be bound again.

_Okay, that was unusual,_ Yue thought, never anticipating that she'd live to see something as confusing as what Aang just did.

"What does it matter, Your Highness?" Long Feng told the King. "They're enemies of the state."

"Perhaps so," the King replied, though he did it with uncertainty.

Suddenly, the King's pet bear, the one from the party they had gone to in their original plan to see the King, had shown up and went over to Aang, licking his face and making the boy giggle.

"Though Bosco seems to like him," the King said, then, "so I'll hear what they has to say."

Yue saw Feng's eyes narrow with displeasure; he was obviously unhappy of this.

Aang stepped forward so that the King could hear him better.

"You see, Your Majesty, there is a war going on right now. For one-hundred years, in fact, but Long Feng and the Dai Li kept it secret from you. It's a conspiracy in order to control the city, the country and yourself." He explained to him.

"A secret war? This is crazy!" The King said, dismayed.

"Completely!" Feng added.

"Your Grand Secretariat never wanted us to do anything that we could to inform you of the war, so he took our Sky Bison to blackmail us," Yue revealed to the King. "And blackmail is the least of his crimes and cruelty; he even brainwashed one of our friends and later tried to kill him!"

The Earth King looked at Long Feng with a frown, to which Long Feng declared, "All lies! I've never even seen a Sky Bison, Your Majesty. Honestly, I had thought they were all extinct."

"Well, that's almost impossible to tell if it's true or not, as no one has seen or heard of other Air Nomads for decades." Sokka told him.

"Hmm, your claim is entirely difficult to believe, even from friends of the Avatar and the Avatar himself," the King stated to them.

"These young hooligans are part of an anarchist cell that my agents have been looking into for days, Your Highness. If you listen to them, you're playing right into your own end." Feng lied to him.

"I'm afraid that I must trust my advisor," the King told them, leaving a look of distraught on their faces.

_Okay, now I know this cannot be happening,_ thought Yue, as the Dai Li behind them began to take them away from the King. "Wait! We can prove that he's lying about everything he says!"

The agents stopped and Yue continued her introduction of the evidence.

"He says that he's never seen a Sky Bison, right? Ask him to lift up his robes."

"What?! I am not disrobing!" Feng said to the princess.

"Not disrobe, just to lift them up; there's a difference."

While the King looked thoughtful, Aang and Sokka helped Yue with a little Airbending: Aang inhaled a breath and blew a strong gust of wind at Long Feng, sending his robes up to reveal the bite marks that still bruised his left leg by Appa from earlier in the day.

"See?! Appa bit him right there!" Yue explained to the King.

"So you've never seen a Sky Bison, huh, Long Feng?" Sokka asked, sounding self-satisfied.

"That happens to be a large birthmark, thank you very much," he lied again, setting his robes back down as he feigned embarrassment.

"Well, I supposed there's no way to way to prove how those marks got there," said the King.

"Actually, Your Majesty," went Katara, "there is."

In a moment later, Aang, after they were all relieved of their restraints, brought in Appa to show his teeth and compare the marks of Long Feng's leg to them.

"Yeah, that certainly proves it," the King said, earning a few cheers from the group, "but it doesn't prove this conspiracy theory of yours."

"Aw!" They groaned.

"Although, this matter is worth looking into," he told them.

"Oh, um, we'll take that. Yeah." They said, with varying traces of uncertainty.

Long Feng, however, was very unhappy about this, and left the room with his Dai Li agents.

Sokka and Jet had suggested that they show the King the hidden base underneath Lake Laogai to expose how far Long Feng's conspiracy with the Dai Li was over the whole city, and the King agreed to that, leaving out the palace, surprised by observing the damage they had caused in their attempt to see him.

"Ooh," Yue sighed, seeing the remaining guards get up from under the tiles of stone. "We really went overboard on these guys."

-x-

The princess had seen boat passengers with various expressions and the expressions of those that rode carriages, but the expressions of the train passengers were a new sight to her: Every single one of them were stunned at the sight of their Earth Kingdom god as he stood with four of his guards in the middle of the car they were all in. The King himself looked sort of displeased and, at the same time, amazed by the sight of people in the train.

"So, this is what a train is like?" He asked. "I never realized it was so…public."

"You mean…you've never been outside the Upper Ring before?" Katara asked him.

"I've never been outside the palace," he added, which seemed to upset Yue before he pointed out a window, looking over at Aang, who flew beside the train on Appa with Momo at his side.

As he spoke with Sokka and Jet, Yue had to wonder how could a man, with such authority over a grand metropolis and the rest of his country, could've never been outside his own palace at all. It almost reminded her of how she was sheltered by the walls of her own country. But where they differed was that she was younger than he was and was getting used to traveling a great deal with friends, while the King was older and was unadjusted to life on the outside of a shelter.

_I may need to ask him about his childhood,_ she thought, unaware of the passing time, or that she was now in front of the same lake that wasn't so beautiful, anymore. "Huh?"

"…If you'll excuse me, I'm going back to the palace," said the Earth King to the others, and Yue noticed the sight of the path that lead to the underground base of Lake Laogai; it was reduced to mere rubble, the result of Earthbending used by the Dai Li to destroy the entrance and all other evidence to avoid their being brought to justice.

"Wait!" Katara went, an idea popping in her mind. "The Outer Wall! They'll never be able to cover up or remove that in time."

"That's right," added Aang in agreement, and got in front of the King to keep him from leaving. "If you come with us to the Outer Wall, we can prove to you of the war and the conspiracy and everything."

"No Earth King has ever been to the Outer Wall," the King told him. "I don't have any more time for this nonsense of yours."

Then Yue intervened with, "Your Highness, if you come with us, I'm sure Appa wouldn't mind letting you ride there with him to the Outer Wall."

-x-

"Aaaaahh!" The King screamed as the group flew on Appa toward the Outer Wall, holding onto the bison for dear life.

"Your first time flying?" Toph asked him.

"It's both thrilling and very terrifying," he explained.

"Yeah, I hate it, too," she responded.

"I have to be honest with you, though," he told Aang and Yue, "part of me is hoping that what you say about a war…isn't true."

"Believe me when I say that I wish I could speak for everyone and say that I wish the war wasn't true, that it's nothing but a terrible dream that everyone's having…and can't seem to wake up from." Yue responded back.

As they reached the Outer Wall, Jet and Smellerbee pointed downward at what they saw.

"What is that thing?" They asked.

"It's still there!" Sokka sighed, seeing the Fire Nation Drill.

"What is that?" The King asked, amazed by the mere sight of it still lodged into the wall itself.

"A drill, Your Majesty," Yue explained to him. "A drill made by the Fire Nation to break into your city and grant the enemy an unbreakable victory and taking all of the world, ending the war."

When they landed on the wall, the King looked more closely at the Fire Nation Drill and the damage it had done to the wall. He didn't look happy now that he knew something was wrong with the state of the world's Earth Kingdom. Yue went over to him and wondered if he was convinced of the war; his expression was proof enough.

"I can't believe I never knew," he said to her, shaken.

"I can explain, Your Majesty," they all heard Long Feng, seeing him arrive with two of his Dai Li. "This is simply a construction project."

Katara then pointed to the insignia and asked, sarcastically, "Oh, really? Then can you explain why there's a Fire Nation insignia on your so-called construction project, perhaps?"

"Well, it's imported, of course," he answered her, albeit lamely. "You know you can't always trust domestic machinery."

They all, including the Earth King himself, stared at him with displeasure.

"Surely, you don't believe these kids, instead of your most loyal attendant!" He told the King, who looked at him and the young fighters.

And then, with a firm tone, uttered, "Dai Li, arrest Long Feng. I want him to stand trial for crimes against the Earth Kingdom."

The Dai Li did as they were ordered, though Yue noticed that they had an odd glance they shared before doing so, and inhibited his Earthbending powers with their metal cuffs and took him away.

"You can't arrest me!" Feng yelled at them. "You need me more than you know!"

"It looks like Long Feng is now Long Gone!" Yue made a joke, which, surprisingly, was something Sokka was going to say.

"Ha! Yue, you're killing me with your jokes," Sokka told her.

"Saying it felt good," she said back.

-x-

"I want to thank each of you for opening my eyes," said the Earth King, as they had returned to the palace when night came. "All this time, what I had believed to be a metropolis, was merely a city of fools, and that makes me the king of the fools. We're at war with the Fire Nation."

"That's why we're here, Your Majesty," Yue and Sokka told him.

"We're hoping you'll be able to help put an end to the war," Sokka then said alone. "We only have till the end of this summer before a comet will return and grant the Fire Nation the power they need to end the war in their favor. But before that happens, there'll be a solar eclipse that'll leave the Firebenders helpless for a short time."

"And what are you suggesting, Sokka?" The King asked him.

"He's suggesting that that's the day that we need to invade the Fire Nation: On the Day of Black Sun, the Darkest Day in Fire Nation History. Our window of opportunity." Yue told him.

"But that would require moving the troops out of Ba Sing Se. We'd be completely vulnerable."

"But you're already vulnerable, Your Highness," said Jet to him. "They won't stop until your city falls under their reign. You can either sit it out here, or, like the others that are giving it their all, you can take the offensive instead of the defensive, and help defeat them before it's too late."

Taking only a moment to think about the opportunity, the King says, "Very well. You'll have my support in the invasion plan."

The young heroes cheer and hug in response to this news.

Moments after they cheered their victory at defeating Long Feng and gaining the support of the King, a man in Earth Kingdom military clothing came into the throne room, introducing himself as General How and bowing to the King.

"This is General How, the leader of the Council of Five, my highest-ranking generals of Ba Sing Se and the Earth Kingdom." The King explained his general to the others.

"We've looked through Long Feng's office and have found things that will interest everyone." General How revealed to them.

-x-

_Long Feng's office seems to resemble the library he brought us to after our first attempt to see the King,_ thought Yue, seeing the resemblance between the library and this private study of Feng's as the group looked down at an ornate chest on a desk in front of them.

"There are secret files on every person in Ba Sing Se," How explained, "including you kids."

"Secret files?" Aang and Yue asked, confused.

The Earth King opened the chest and took out a rolled-up scroll with an inscription on it.

"_Toph Bei Fong," _he read, handing it to the blind girl, who, in turn, handed it to Katara.

Katara opened the scroll and read the writing inscribed on it.

"It's a letter from your mother," she explained to the girl. "She's here in the city and wants to see you."

Toph then said, in a disgusted tone, "Long Feng intercepted our letters, even ones from home? That's just sad."

"There's no privacy at all from that man," Yue said, disliking the former secretariat further.

The King pulled out another scroll and read Aang's name on it.

"This scroll was attached to your bison's horn when the Dai Li captured it," How explained to the Avatar when he was handed the scroll.

"It's from the…Eastern Air Temple," he read.

The King took out two more scrolls and presented the one in his left hand to Katara and Sokka while the one in his right went to Yue.

"It's an intelligence report about a small fleet of Water Tribe ships," Sokka revealed.

"Protecting the mouth of Chameleon Bay, and being led by Chief Hakoda. It's our father's fleet." Katara exclaimed happily.

Yue then took her turn to open her scroll up to read what was there, hoping that it wasn't something she wanted to ignore. Bringing her eyes to look down at the writing, she shuddered in disbelief at what was there. Not only was it a letter from the Northern Water Tribe, it was from her father, Chief Arnook.

"Yue?" Sokka asked her.

She looked at her boyfriend and revealed, "It's from my father. He says that…Hahn has renounced his engagement to me on account of his injury during the siege on the Northern Water Tribe…and his…sudden epiphany about his own life."

"Renounced?" Jet asked, confused by the mere word.

"It means his original intention on marrying Yue has been canceled by him," Sokka explained. "He doesn't want to marry her, anymore."

"Oh."

"Oh?" Yue went on, looking at the rest of the scroll. "This also says that some of the tribe's laws have been abolished by my father, including the marriage one."

Sokka and Katara had wide eyes at the mere sound of hearing that certain laws of the Northern Water Tribe had been undone, and that probably meant a good thing for Sokka's relationship with Yue itself. If what was said in the letter was true, it meant that Sokka and Yue could get married, eventually, since their feelings for each other were mutual.

"So, where do we begin with everything that we've learned?" Jet asked, as they all sat on the rug of the office half an hour later.

"Well, on my scroll, the person at the Eastern Air Temple is a guru that wants to help me learn to control the Avatar State," Aang told him.

"What's a guru?" Smellerbee asked.

"A spiritual expert."

"Oh."

"From the sound of the words on my Mom's letter, she finally understands me," went Toph.

"I think we might have to separate to do all four things at once," Katara revealed her suggestion on where to begin with everything.

"You want us to split up?" Aang asked, sounding distraught. "But we just found Appa and got the family back together, and now you want us to separate?"

"But Aang, you really need to meet this guru," Yue told him. "If we're going to invade the Fire Nation on the day of the eclipse, you need to be ready."

The Air Nomad nodded in agreement and replied, "Okay, but if I'm going to the Eastern Air Temple, I can at least drop you off at Chameleon Bay to see your father."

"But someone has to stay behind to help prepare for the invasion, and that should be me," said Sokka.

"Sokka, you should go see your father," Yue told him. "I'll stay and help with the invasion. How hard could it possibly be?"

"I'll stay and help her," Katara added.

Sokka chuckled and gave them his thanks.

-x-

"Hey, Aang," went Toph, as the Air Nomad and Southern Water Tribe boy got ready to leave Ba Sing Se on Appa, "when you get back, please, have the old saddle, will ya?"

"No problem, Toph," he complied. "Before we head to Chameleon Bay, we're retrieving the saddle. No more flying on Appa bareback."

As Sokka made sure he had what he needed before he left with Aang, Yue watched him pack up.

"You be careful when you see him, Sokka," she told him.

"I will if you be careful here," he responded, looking at her.

"I'll be fine. I've spent a great deal of time with you guys, so I should be able to endure some separation. Plus, Jet, Longshot and Smellerbee will be with Katara and I, so there's nothing that can go wrong. In no time at all, the invasion plan will be put into motion, the Fire Lord will be defeated and this war will end before the comet arrives by summer's end."

Soon enough, the King approached them and said, "Aang and Sokka, I wish you a good journey. Ba Sing Se owes you thanks and we look forward to your return."

The boys bowed their heads to him and then climbed onto Appa's head. Just then, a guard approached them and said, "Your Majesty, there are three female warriors here to see you. They say they're from the island of Kyoshi."

"Suki?" Sokka and Yue both gasped, and Sokka fell off Appa.

"You know these warriors?" The King asked them.

"Yes. They're the Kyoshi Warriors, a skilled group of fighters we met along the journey, and they're trustworthy friends of ours." Sokka told him.

"Then they shall be welcomed as honored guests."

When Appa flew off with Sokka and Aang, Yue felt a tinge of sadness in her heart. It always hurt whenever she was separated from Sokka by distance. For her, it was like she had lost a part of herself.

_Hopefully,_ she thought, _when he comes back, this pain will be gone._

As she walked away with Katara back to the Earth King's palace, Sokka and Aang conversed about the benefits of positive thinking.

"It goes a long way," Sokka said to him. "The Earth King's on our side, Long Feng's arrested, and when we get back, Yue, Katara, Toph, Suki and the others will be waiting for us."

"Yeah," Aang agreed, sounding love-struck in his tone of voice. "Girls will be waiting for us. Thanks a lot, positive thinking."

"Everything's gonna work out perfectly now," Sokka smiled, but deep down in his heart, he felt a pain that only came to him whenever he was separated from Yue. _I hope nothing bad happens to her._

A/N: I'll end this chapter right here. What'll happen in the next chapter will be interesting, especially for Yue, who's bound to reflect on her past and future with what has become of her present. And the pain that comes to her and Sokka with their being separated I hope to explain through the next chapter. The more reviews will make the stories involving Yue existence unbound by the presence of the Moon Spirit, Tui, all the more incredible. And I read the novel version of _The Last Airbender_ and I'm fascinated by the visual scenes that popped into my head. I can't wait to see the film.


	7. The Princess and the Lessons of the Guru

Creation began on 06-13-10

Creation ended on 08-29-10

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Lessons of the Guru

A/N: I guess this is self-discovery when you try to deal with your problems. Here goes.

_"We are the humble servants of the Earth King,"_ Yue recalled those words coming the young woman that claimed to be a Kyoshi Warrior, knowing she had heard that voice of hers from somewhere, but was unable to place the face that owned that voice, only that it was calm and…dangerous to whoever was around. _One thing was for certain…and that the girl was not Suki._

Because Katara and she needed to be able to help the Earth King at all times with the invasion plan, they were given rooms in the palace, while the so-called trio of Kyoshi Warriors were given an apartment elsewhere in the Upper Ring. Yue seemed suspicious about the women due to getting a glance at their leader. She even told Katara what she was able to make out from her perception of 'Suki': She possessed golden eyes; Suki's were bluish-green. While Katara wanted to believe that Yue was simply imagining things, it was hard to believe that what she was told was a lie, especially from a princess. Once she got a clearer look at this girl, she'd be totally convinced.

Whilst Katara was helping the Council of Five with the invasion plan, Yue, along with Jet and Longshot, was helping the Earth King set things in order now that Long Feng was in prison to await his trial for his crimes against the Earth Kingdom and, by extension, the rest of the world at war with the Fire Nation. As they were taking out several scrolls from the office of the former Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se, Yue was talking to the King, whom they discovered was originally named Kuei.

"…I have a strange feeling that if we're going to make this invasion plan possible, we need to be quiet about it," she told him, "and take careful steps to ensure that the city and the rest of the Earth Kingdom will remain unconquered by the Fire Nation."

"What are you suggesting, Princess Yue?" Kuei asked her, hanging on her words now.

"Well, our first priority should be the Dai Li," she suggested. "Whatever authority that was given to them by Long Feng should be reduced to their original status as just the protectors of the city's cultural heritage, and if not that, then to, at least, ensure that they cannot cause trouble again by disbanding them for good."

Kuei thought of the choices for a moments and agreed with her on the latter suggestion, believing that the Dai Li may not live true to their original purpose, and would make it so the instant that Katara had return with the scroll that required one of his signatures to make the invasion plan possible.

"Thank you, Your Highness," she praised him, "and, please, for the sake of the world, don't mention anything about anything to anyone, not even to the Kyoshi Warriors."

She had run off before he could even ask her why he shouldn't tell them, but had to agree that it was for the sake of the world. With his former advisor no longer trustworthy, he needed people around him that he could trust, and returned to his throne room.

-x-

"…General Fong's base will serve as the starting point of the attack," said General How to Katara, as she, he and the other members of the Council of Five were setting into motion the invasion plan. "In two months' time, we'll be ready to invade the Fire Nation on the Day of Black Sun."

Just then, before Katara could say anything about Momo causing destruction to the Fire Nation, a woman had arrived and approached General How, whispering something in his right ear. Whatever it was, it made the general look at Katara with a grim expression.

"A message for you," he started speaking again. "Princess Yue, while on her way here, suddenly collapsed and is currently in the hospital wing. You should go see her."

Katara gasped and nodded, saying she'd be back as soon as she found out what had caused this to happen, leaving seconds later.

_What could've caused Yue to pass out?_ She thought, running past several government officials to get to the hospital wing; Momo was flying close behind her. _Maybe she was poisoned…or maybe she didn't eat much…or even lack of sleep._

What she didn't know was that, at the exact same time at Chameleon Bay, Sokka had also passed out in front of their father, Hakoda, and the Water Tribe soldiers there didn't understand what had caused it to happen, either.

-x-

"Oh, um… Where…am I?" Yue wondered, coming to, but finding herself in a place that didn't resemble any place in Ba Sing Se; her location looked like a mix between a cave and a forest, cloaked in shadows. "Hello?"

"Yue…" A response came, and the voice seemed familiar to the princess, but at the same time it didn't. "Yue… You must come with me."

Getting up to her feet, she found herself dressed in her Water Tribe outfit of what had almost been the last day of her mortal life when Zhao almost killed Tui. Following the voice, she found the ground was covered in at least two feet of water, so her feet below the knee were soaked. Whoever this person was, they sure liked to stay hidden.

"Who are you? Where are you?" She called out to the voice.

"In front of you?" The person responded, and she saw somebody that wasn't in front of her before.

_Oh, my…_ Her thoughts were mixed up at the sight of the man in front of her. _Another member of the Northern Water Tribe._

The man in front of her looked as though he'd come from the Northern Water Tribe, but from another time period, and wore a bearskin pelt and, for some odd reason, reminded her of Sokka if he were much older and stern. He was sitting on a rock in front of a wooden table that was there in front of the princess, and he pointed to another rock that was present.

"Please, sit," he requested of her.

She obliged and sat down in front of her.

"Where am I, sir?" She asked, a little worried.

"In the Spirit World," he answered her, which sent a chill down her spine.

"Am I dead?" She asked again, frightened.

"No," he answered to calm her nerves. "You're not dead. You had passed out. Currently, you're in the hospital wing in the Ba Sing Se building that houses the Council of Five. The reason that you're here is…because you need to obtain a great balance within yourself before you can help more in the war with the Fire Nation, and to that, you must listen to the words of Pathik."

"Pathik?"

"The guru that'll teach Aang the means to control the Avatar State."

"But…Aang is over at the Eastern Air Temple…and I'm in Ba Sing Se…and here in the Spirit World."

"All you need do is listen for his words. To listen and learn."

Around them, the trees in the shadows began to blur, along with the water at their feet drying up.

"Our time is up," the man revealed, disappearing as well from sight.

"Oh, wait! I have more questions!" Yue gasped. "Like, who are you?!"

"I am Avatar Kuruk," he told her his name. "I'm the last Avatar from the Water Tribes, originating from the North Pole."

And then he was gone, and Yue, too, had vanished from sight.

-x-

_"We believe the cause was just fatigue,"_ Katara recalled one of the healers saying to her earlier. _I wish I could believe that…but then again, ever since we arrived here, Yue's been…out of sorts lately. Maybe being away from the North Pole for such a time is taking its toll on her…or maybe it was what she read in her letter from her father…or maybe…_

She never got to finish as Yue, whom she was sitting next to, had arisen from her sleep, groggy-eyed and looking half-rested.

"K…Katara?" She asked her as she got up into a sitting position. "Oh… What happened? The last thing I remember is running to get you, and the next thing I know…I'm right here, wherever 'here' is."

"You're in the hospital wing, Yue," Katara explained to her. "You collapsed on your way to see me. The healers believe that you did so out of fatigue. Are you feeling alright? Hungry?"

That last question was answered by the princess' stomach, giving a growling indication that said princess was indeed hungry.

"I probably picked up another of Sokka's habits," Yue chuckled, recalling how Sokka often acted on his stomach whenever he wanted to eat, especially meat.

At the same time as she came to, Sokka himself had regained consciousness and felt like he needed to eat, even when he ate before Aang had dropped him off after retrieving Appa's saddle.

-x-

Aang breathed a breath of old memories as he and Appa arrived at the Eastern Air Temple where they first met and became lifetime companions. The mere sight of the three mountains that said temple stood upon, connected by bridges, was breathtaking, and atop a pillar of stone, the Air Nomad could see a man in a meditative stance with small animals surrounding him.

"Um, hello?" He greeted with uncertainty. "Are you…Guru Pathik? The person who attached the note to Appa's horn?"

"Indeed, I was," the man responded, "and I was a spiritual brother of the Air Nomads, as well as a personal friend of Gyatso."

Aang bowed to him and then sat down in front of him.

"In your note, you said that you could teach me to control the Avatar State. How can you do so?"

"You must obtain balance within yourself before you can restore the balance of the world," Pathik explained to him, "and the first step to begin is with a drink (he then produces a wooden cup with a strange liquid in it). Please, drink."

The young Air Nomad accepted the cup and drunk the liquid, only to react in disgust at the mere taste.

"Ugh! It tastes like onion and banana juice!" He told Pathik.

"That's because it is. Yum-yum."

-x-

"Thank you again," Yue praised Katara, after finishing her meal and her cup of tea; the tea was needed to wash a bad flavor that had, somehow, wind up inside her mouth, like onions and bananas were made into a drink. "I feel much better now."

Katara, unwilling to leave her by herself until she was completely well, had asked Jet to deliver the scroll to the Earth King to legalize the invasion plan against the Fire Nation. She knew that Jet could get back to the palace faster than she could and retrieve the signature and return it to the Council of Five to get things starting.

"Katara," Yue went, "do you know anything about…chakras?"

"Chakras? No, only that people have seven of them that go up the body," Katara answered her. "Why?"

"I had a dream about it. When I past out, I was in the Spirit World, and I met up with this guy who was an Avatar from the Northern Water Tribe, Kuruk, and he told me that I would have to listen to this guru that would be helping Aang, but that's confusing; Aang and the guru are at the Eastern Air Temple…and I'm still here in Ba Sing Se."

Katara had a thoughtful pose for a moment and suggested, "We should walk around the city some. That may help you."

She got Yue out of bed and walked her out of the building onto the streets of the Upper Ring. The walk was a bit long, but it helped to clear Yue's confused mind; she could even hear things a lot better than she used to.

"Well, Yue?" Katara asked. "Do you hear anything?"

"I hear everything," she answered her.

"…_You must open all of the chakras…"_ She heard somebody's voice, from far, far away from where she was.

"_So, chakras are pools of spiraling energy in our bodies?"_ She heard a second that sounded like Aang's. _"And when nothing is in the way of them, the energy flows!"_

"I hear Aang and the guru talking," she told Katara as they stopped in front of the _Fancy Lady Day Spa_. "They're talking about how chakras are pools of energy within our bodies."

"Yeah, that's right," Katara said, "but they can blocked from working properly, and if we unblock them, the energy flows out."

They went into the spa for a sauna, since the steam was a good source of clearing out stress and whatnot from their bodies.

"_There are seven chakras that go up the body, each one with a different purpose that can be blocked by a specific kind of emotional muck… We'll begin with the Earth Chakra, located at the base of the spine, the first of the seven,"_ Yue heard the guru speaking again. _"It deals with our survival…and is blocked by our fears. Meditate on what fears are clear to you. What you are most afraid of."_

Yue, like Aang, did the same suggestion, but hers weren't in the same extreme as his were; if anything, hers were much higher: Images of the world in agonizing pain, the Southern Water Tribe in dire need of salvation, the Fire Nation claiming victory in the war, but worst of all, herself in the lonely, miserable presence of the two men that almost made her life an empty lake of darkness. Zhao, the Firebender that nearly killed Tui…and Hahn, the Northern Water Tribe warrior she was almost married to! They were right there in front of her, wrapped in darkness; Hahn was holding a machete while Zhao was prepared to bend the black flames that surrounded the three. The princess became terrified, unable to flee…or even scream at the very possibility of them hurting her.

-x-

Katara, seeing the princess shuddering with her eyes, like she had caught a cold or something, suspected that her first chakra was terrifying, and made an attempt to help her.

_Help her realize that it's only her fears,_ she had heard a voice from somewhere in her head, and obliged to help Yue.

"Yue, whatever you're seeing, it isn't real," she told her. "You're just concerned for your safety. Let go of those fears."

_Let go of those fears…like surrendering to them,_ Yue thought, hearing both Pathik and Katara around her, and the Water Tribe boy and Firebending Master faded away from her presence as she found herself back in the sauna, Katara in front of her. "Thanks, Katara. I've opened my first chakra."

When they were finished, they walked down the streets toward the Lower Ring, right to the well that Yue had explained to Katara that she saw and conversed with the Moon and Ocean Spirits.

"I'm guessing that the next chakra is…the Water Chakra?" Katara asked her.

"Yeah, so says Pathik," Yue replied, looking into the bucket of water. "It's…supposed to deal with pleasure, and is blocked by our guilt."

"So, just what is your guilt, Yue? What do you blame yourself for?"

The princess reflected on her past and found few things she felt sorry for: The complications of her birth, the passing of her mother, almost being married to Hahn…and nearly breaking Sokka's heart against her own wishes. She told Katara of these after she had realized them.

Following her gut instinct, Katara said, "We need to accept the reality that things like these happen, but we can't let them hang over us forever. If you're to be a positive influence toward the world, you have to forgive yourself. None of these things were ever your fault, Yue."

She looked at Katara and smiled and nodded.

"Thank you," she praised her.

-x-

Jet was thrilled, and he had a good reason to be. He was able to get the Earth King's stamp of approval for the okay to initiate the invasion plan with the Earth Kingdom forces and got the scroll back to the Council of Five. Now, they were ready to take the rebellion right to the Fire Nation and end the war forever. But what didn't thrill him was the fact that the three so-called Kyoshi Warriors didn't seem very devoted to their cause of protecting the Earth Kingdom or the Earth King; one them even had a smile that gave him the creeps because she seemed too happy while another girl seemed uninterested in everything around her, especially the bear, Bosco, which he couldn't really fault her for.

_It's smooth sailing from here, _he thought happily as he walked around the Middle Ring, trying to find Katara and Yue, after being told by one of the physicians that had examined the princess that they might've gone wandering around the city. "I've looked nearly everywhere around here. Where could they have gone off too?"

"…Hey, let's go see the new tea shop, the_ Jasmine Dragon_," he heard a lady say to another lady.

"You mean that shop that has its grand opening today?" The other woman asked. "Okay. I heard the tea there is supposed to be excellent. I hope they have ginseng; it's my favorite."

_The Jasmine Dragon? Ginseng tea? I love ginseng tea. Maybe I'll find them there. _Jet thought, and decided to ask the ladies where he'd be able to find this new tea shop.

-x-

"…So, what is the name of the next chakra, Yue?" Katara asked the princess, having stopped at a small restaurant in the Middle Ring where they were eating a few crab puffs.

"The Fire Chakra, located in the stomach," she answered her, still eating her first crab puff.

"I'm guessing my Fire Chakra would like something other than the regular food that we've been eating before we arrived to Ba Sing Se."

"Eh-heh-heh. That's actually funny. But, seriously, I hear the guru telling Aang that the Fire Chakra deals with willpower, and is blocked by shame."

"Shame? But…you don't look like you have any shame, whatsoever, Yue. Surely, there are no disappointments from your past that have gotten to you."

"There actually is a shame I have," Yue told her. "Back at the North Pole, when Sokka and I agreed to do an activity together, and he carved my fish for me that I wear around my neck…I left him alone after saying that my seeing him was a mistake; it was because I had been engaged to Hahn at the time."

"_I'm never going to Firebend again,"_ she then heard Aang's voice say. _"I can't."_

Yue became quiet, almost too quiet for Katara to ignore out of curiosity, and she shook her shoulders.

"Yue? Yue!" Katara said, and the princess came back to full awareness.

"I'm sorry, I had…I heard Aang talking. Katara, has he tried Firebending in the past?"

The young Waterbending Master looked away and sighed, "Yes. Aang attempted some Firebending before we reached the North Pole, and when he wasn't paying attention to the master he was learning from…I got hurt. That's when he told me that he wouldn't Firebend again."

"Then, that must be his shame for his Fire Chakra: You getting hurt by him by accident. But…he can't bring this war to an end unless he accepts that part of himself to achieve balance. As the Avatar, he is the only one that can control all the elements, and as the Avatar, he is also a Firebender."

"Yeah. I hope that he does learn to Firebend again, and that he will be careful next time. What about your shame? You left Sokka that night, and I heard that the stone fish he made for you was thrown into the water. Speaking of which, how'd you get it back?"

"After the siege, I went back to spot where we met to do our activity and swam under the water to retrieve it; you'd be amazed at how easy it was when the water's the right temperature and there are no other rocks around. It was when I swore that I wouldn't hurt Sokka again. It's part of the reason I hold much value in his carved fish; it might not look like much, but it's dear to me…and I love it."

Katara could sympathize with her about holding value in something that, to others, didn't seem worth much, placing much value in her own mother's betrothal necklace, and constantly worried that she'd never get it back when she discovered that Zuko had it when she lost it and then Aang returned it to her. She then took a third crab puff, having previously downed two of them, and ate that one.

"That makes three chakras now, and only four left for you to open, so I suggest we continue with that."

"Then, we should continue our walk around the city," Yue told her, having finished her first crab puff and proceeded to eating her second.

When they returned to the Upper Ring, they spotted a new tea shop that many people were gathering about. It appeared to have that grand opening feel to it.

"The_ Jasmine Dragon_?" Katara questioned, feeling like there was something about it that seemed out of place.

"Katara, I think we should try the tea from this place," Yue suggested, but also because she was getting a good feeling that if they did, something beneficial would come to them. "I have a good feeling that this is the place we want to have tea at."

"Okay, if you say so."

They went over, found a pair of empty seats and sat down, and Yue saw someone that she hadn't seen in a short while.

"I was starting to wonder what had happened to him," she said, and Katara saw who she was talking about: It was Iroh, and his nephew, Zuko, serving tea to some patrons.

"Yue, I think we should leave," she tried to convince the princess. "This might be a bad idea."

Yue looked at her and realized that she hadn't told her of her time with Iroh, and decided to reveal it to her in full detail.

"Katara, I met up with him after our time at the _Fancy Lady Day Spa_ with Toph that day," she stated. "There was nothing wrong being done, and he was performing a memorial service for his son, who passed away in the war a few years ago. He's okay."

"But what about his nephew? I'm not sure he's okay. I mean, he's chased us around the world in the beginning, hurt other people; he's even burned down a village once before."

Before Katara could say something else that was true, Zuko had shown up right in front of the girls and greeted them as though he had only met them for the first time.

"Hello, may I take your order?" He asked, sounding very polite, unlike the last time they met him; he had sounded devastated when his sister had attacked Iroh.

Yue, the first to speak up, went, "I'll have jasmine tea, please."

"I'll have the same," added Katara.

"Coming right up," he replied and left to go get one of the kettles filled with jasmine tea.

Iroh saw the girls and decided to go speak with them.

"Hello, you two," he greeted them.

"Hello, sir," Yue responded back. "This is a really nice tea shop."

"I know. I just got it." He told them. "What brings you here on the grand opening of the _Jasmine Dragon_, anyhow?"

"The Northern Water Tribe Princess is on a spiritual journey," Katara explained, "in the hopes of understanding herself as a person better."

"Oh? Normally, one does a journey on their own, but it is always greater when a friend is with you."

Zuko had returned with the jasmine tea and calmly poured their cups for the girls.

"Thank you, sir," Yue praised him, taking a sip of the tea, and felt a great rush of the soothing, warm beverage wash down her throat. "This is most delicious. Katara, you have to taste it."

Katara did so, and had to admit that the flavor was unlike anything she had tried before; it had stemmed from never having any tea in the Southern Water Tribe to begin with. It was as if she had been immersed within a hot spring or a hot bath, which were also a rarity back home in the Water Tribes.

Yue looked in her cup and then saw not her reflection, but that of Sokka's, looking like he'd seen something that could bring tears to his eyes if he had any to shed. Her heart beat with a rhythm that was familiar whenever she thought of him, her parents, or even the others when only happiness filled her.

"_The fourth in the chain is the Air Chakra, located in the heart,"_ she heard Pathik's voice, as he was teaching Aang the importance of this chakra. _"It deals with love…and is blocked by grief. Lay out all of your grief in front of you."_

Yue did the same, laying out her grief, which came in the form of her mother, who looked just as beautiful as she was at the time of her death, sitting in front of her and smiling the pleasant smile that made the young princess happy when she was little. But then, like dust, the young Water Tribe woman disappeared, leaving only the memories of the past.

Avatar Kuruk appeared beside Yue and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You have indeed experienced a great loss," he said, sympathetically, "but love is a form of energy that exists all around us, not just within us. Your mother's love for you hasn't left your life."

"_It is still inside of your heart,"_ Pathik's voice added, _"and is reborn in the form of new love."_

She saw a swirling mist gather in front of her and take the shape of a person she immediately recognized: Sokka, with a goofy smile whenever he made a joke or laughed…and had that look he gave her when they first met; it was the look of love at first sight. Tears filled her eyes; it was her mother's love that brought forth this love for Sokka that buried her worries of the past.

"Could I have some more tea, please?" She asked, back in the conscious world with Katara and the others. _Mother… Sokka… I love you dearly…with all of my heart._

-x-

_I love you, as well, Yue,_ thought Sokka, helping his father, Hakoda, build some more "Stink and sink"/Tangle Mines for their assault on the Fire Nation's navy fleet that was preparing to invade Chameleon Bay and try to gain entrance to Ba Sing Se. _I'd give anything for you._

-x-

"…So, you two were just trying to avoid this girl that bends blue flames by hiding here?" Jet asked Iroh and Zuko, trying to make absolutely sure that he got the facts right.

"That's right," said Zuko, after he, his uncle, Katara, Yue and himself had went into the back of the building where they could have a private conversation after Jet had arrived once he got directions to the tea shop. "We're not here to try and conquer the city, we're just trying to live nice lives without the war getting in the way again."

"So, that means you've given up chasing Aang, then?" Yue asked him.

"Yeah," the prince answered, though he was unsure of the answer himself. _I mean, I have given up on him, haven't I?_

"Maybe you need to see if your Sound Chakra is open to discern if you've truly given up," the princess told him.

"You know about the chakras?" Iroh asked.

"I just started learning about them, and I've opened up four of them so far. I've just started with the fifth, the Sound Chakra."

"It is located in the throat," the aged man added. "It deals with truth…and is blocked by lies…the ones we tell ourselves."

"Lies that we tell ourselves?" Yue asked, curious of this belief. _What lies do I tell myself?_

"_What was your dream about?" _She recalled Sokka asking her, when they were looking for Appa while in the city.

"_Living on a mountain made of water,"_ she recalled herself telling him, hiding the truth that it had been about what had almost happened had Zhao killed Tui. _Oh…that lie…and I told myself that and believed it later. I even lied to myself, saying I didn't care about Sokka when I did, as well as believing that my life would get easier before the siege…and way before I found out about my former engagement to Hahn. I can't believe I've been lying to myself about all of this._

Feeling like a door had been opened inside of her; Yue felt a great flow of energy rush through her.

"_Very good," _she heard Pathik say. _"You have opened the Chakra of Truth."_

Much later, after much information and details of what brought each individual to the Earth Kingdom capital was shared, Yue, Katara and Jet left the _Jasmine Dragon_ and its owners with happy smiles. Although Katara wasn't so sure about Zuko because of their past encounters, but Yue was convinced that the Fire Nation prince could be trusted; she believed it stemmed from the fact that his uncle acted more like a father to him than his own father ever could; it was almost impossible to picture Zuko being in the same room or having a conversation with Fire Lord Ozai. The princess didn't even know what the current leader of the Fire Nation looked like. Even Jet was convinced now that there were some members of the Fire Nation that could be trusted, and that there were many that weren't responsible for the war they were in, just indirectly part of it, but until the war was over, pretty much of the rest of the world saw them as the enemy.

"Katara, you sure you don't want to talk about Zuko?" Yue asked her.

"Another time, Yue," she answered. "Another time. What about you? I mean, you've mastered five chakras now. I'm ready to hear about the remaining two."

"Well, let's see if I can hear the guru's words," the princess tried straining her ears to hear Pathik's words as said guru tried to teach Aang.

"_The sixth pool of energy is the Light Chakra, located in the center of the forehead,"_ she heard the guru's latest words. _"It deals with insight…and is blocked by illusion. The greatest of the illusions we face in the world…is the illusion of separation, that the things you think are separate and different are in fact one and the same."_

She relayed this information to Katara and Jet, and Jet had an epiphany about the illusion of separation.

"It's like the Four Nations," he said. "We live separated from each other, have different cultures, societies and laws, but we're all still the same collection of individuals. We're all one people, but we live as if we were divided."

"It's also like what Huu said back in the Foggy Swamp Tribe," said Katara in realization. "We're all connected. Everyone and everything is connected."

"_That's right,"_ Yue heard Pathik's words again. _"Even the separation of the Bending Arts is an illusion. If you open your mind, you'll see that water, earth, fire and air are one, four parts of the same whole. Even metals are just parts of earth that have been purified and refined for the purpose of constructing things that can be used for different reasons."_

_Like that drill,_ Yue thought. _It was just massive pieces of earth that had been made to do a great harm instead of a great good. Thank the spirits that Aang and the others stopped it before the city got into big trouble. They're all right. We're all connected._

-x-

As the sun went down and darkness overtook the city, a lot happened that was almost unexpected: The Dai Li had been officially disbanded, the troops that were prepared for the invasion plan had left toward General Fong's base, the instability caused by the conspiracy had been restored and the Earth King had learned the game of Pai Sho from Jet, Longshot and Smellerbee, who had some experience in playing the game. Yue and Katara, on the other hand, were sitting on the steps of the palace and gazing out at the rest of the Upper Ring's lights that seemed more like fireflies instead of lanterns that were lit.

"…So, this is the last chakra, isn't it?" Katara asked the princess.

"Yes. I'm kind of nervous at what might happen after I open it. The guru says that once Aang opens his, he'll be able to go in and out of the Avatar State at will, and when he's in the Avatar State, he'll have complete control and awareness of all of his actions."

"And you? You'll be more balanced than you were before?"

"Most likely."

"Then let's end this."

Yue strained her ears again to listen to Pathik's words on the seventh and final chakra…the Thought Chakra, located at the crown of the head (or the back of it).

"_It deals with pure, cosmic energy…and is blocked by earthly attachment. Meditate on what attaches you to this world."_ Pathik had said, and both Aang and Yue did as instructed.

As Yue meditated, her mind showed her earthly attachment in what was probably the only way she found her status as being alive worth embracing: Past memories of Sokka when they first met, their small date when they accidentally found that building with the haiku-speaking girls, their first dance together; the Southern Water Tribe boy had captivated her heart the whole time that it was impossible to forget about him.

"_Now, let these attachments go. Let them flow down the river…to be forgotten," _says Pathik, as the last image of Sokka that Yue sees is the one when they were in the Foggy Swamp Tribe, they were about to kiss when a screaming bird had interrupted them.

_What?! But why would I choose to let go of Sokka when I love him?_ The princess thought, disturbed by this method of opening her last chakra.

"Yue?" Katara asked, seeing the disturbing look on her face. "Is something wrong?"

"I…I can't open my last chakra, even if it means bringing balance to myself. The price is too high." Yue told her.

"What do you mean?"

"To open my last chakra… I have to let go of Sokka because he's my earthly attachment that blocks the pure, cosmic energy that flows in from the universe."

"What?! Why would you choose cosmic energy over my brother? I mean, how bad can it be that you feel an attachment to him? How can your affections for him be bad when, just three chakras ago, it was good to have affections for him?"

"I don't know. It doesn't make any sense." Yue then lied on her back on the steps and looked up at the night sky. "I can't forgo my love for him. I won't hurt him."

She had drifted off to sleep in the process of lying down, finding herself back in the Spirit World in front of Avatar Kuruk.

"I can't do it," she told him, and he knew what she was talking about.

"You must at least try," he told her.

"But I… I don't want to lose him. I don't want to stop caring about him."

"You won't have to stop. I fell in love with a woman that I made a betrothal necklace for, and to this very day, I have not stopped."

"Huh? But I always thought that the Avatars of the past never fell in love, that the only one I'm sure to have ever fallen for someone was Aang."

"No, there have been plenty of Avatars that have experienced love. The current Avatar is no exception. They just see past their love to their greater duty to preserve balance in the world."

"Whatever happened to your first love?"

"She was taken from me…by Koh, the Face Stealer, an ancient spirit that did so to punish me."

"Why? Why did he punish you?"

"In my day, I was a…'go with the flow' kind of Avatar. Many people had solved their own problems without the need for wars and such, and there were happy and peaceful days in the world. This was due to the efforts of Yangchen, the Avatar before me. Because of her, I was allowed to step back from my responsibilities as the Avatar and let others take care of their own problems…but I was cocky…and arrogant. My carefree lifestyle had cost me my love."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It was my fault. If I had been more attentive to my duties, I could've saved her. Now that I'm here in the Spirit World, I still search for her so that we can be together again."

"Sometimes, the things we do are all out of love and happiness."

"That's right."

Yue then said, "Okay, I'll try to open my last chakra."

"Thank you."

Yue then meditated again, finding herself elsewhere: She could see the planet itself, Sokka had disappeared in a twinkle of light, and a path of light appeared beneath her feet, leading toward the unknown. Looking away, she saw that, to her farthest left, Aang was present, and on a similar path of light as her.

"Aang?" She asked, seeing that he was walking toward a massive entity shaped like himself, but with glowing tattoos and eyes, similar to whenever he was in the Avatar State. _That must be his Avatar Spirit assuming his appearance._

Looking back to her path, she saw that it was now occupied by a massive entity shaped like herself, accompanied by entities in the shape the Moon and Ocean Spirits, Tui and La. She slowly walked her way toward them, her mouth open in awe, and her white changed back to its original brown. As she stood in front of them, a sphere of light was created in the spectral girl's hands, enveloping Yue. The princess felt safe and secured within the orb and just went with the flow as Kuruk had once done. She felt a slight breeze that was accompanied by a shower of mist.

"No!" Her flow was broken by the sound of Katara's voice. "Let me go!"

Something was wrong, and she ran out of the sphere, seeing that Aang had left his, as well, and his Avatar Spirit disappeared from sight. As did her spirit, with the bridges of light fading from existence, as well. She fell toward the planet, screaming her lungs out as she lost consciousness again.

"Aaahh!" She gasped as she came to, back on the stone steps of the palace, but saw that Katara was gone; the water skin that she took with her was all that was left behind. "Katara? Katara!"

She got up and looked for her, forgoing her attempt to open her Thought Chakra.

-x-

Flying toward the city, Aang and Sokka, who felt something was wrong before the Avatar showed up to get him, were concerned with what had happened to the girls while they were gone. All Aang was able to reveal was that he had a vision that Katara had been captured, but couldn't see what had happened to Yue, which either meant that she was okay or that she might've also been captured, or worse than that.

_Katara/Yue, we're coming for you,_ thought the boys as they got closer to the city, and then saw Toph, who was Earthbending her way back to the city, as well. _I wonder what happened with her?_

They flew over toward her and Sokka, to avoid a potential accident, grabbed her waist and pulled onto Appa's head.

"Did you need a ride back to the city?" He asked her.

"Sokka?" She asked back. "What are you doing here?"

"Aang and I felt that something was wrong and came back."

"Well, it turned out that my letter from my mother was nothing more than a ruse meant to kidnap me."

"We can talk about all of this later; let's get to that city and prevent a large problem from happening."

A/N: From this point on, things will get more drastic. I'll give a little hint of what will happen in the next chapter: Sokka will definitely hurt someone bad. As before, please review. And please speak about the movie that everyone's giving bad reviews on. I don't understand how it can be bad when it was good to look at. I mean, the trailers and action scenes were tight that I look at them over and over again.


	8. The Princess & Crossroads of her Destiny

Creation began on 08-29-10

Creation ended on 09-06-10

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Crossroads of her Destiny

A/N: How is the Sokka/Yue pairing written again? Yukka? Sokue? I just can't seem to recall right now. Anyway, I'm enjoying the work that I put in for the couple, but this chapter changes all. Long live Yue.

Of the many things Katara could expect from an enemy, she never expected to be captured by Azula and her friends, Ty Lee and Mai, in the middle of the night while Yue was out cold. She'd been placed in an underground prison while the Tribal Princess had been ignored. She couldn't believe that Yue was right all along about the Kyoshi Warriors; they were the girls from the Fire Nation disguised in their clothes. What were they doing here in Ba Sing Se and what had they planned, and more importantly, did they know about the invasion plan?

_Yue, I'm sorry I doubted your belief,_ she thought, trying to find a way out the cave she was in; without her water skin, she'd been deprived of her bending sources…except for the water from the Spirit Oasis, which she'd been saving for a necessary purpose (and was thankful that Azula and her friends didn't find that to take from her). _Okay, Katara, stay calm. If they left Yue alone, then she can go get help. She might be looking for me right now. You'll be fine._

-x-

It was easier said than done for Yue, who had a hard time finding Katara while avoiding the would-be Kyoshi Warriors and looking for the Earth King. Having left the palace to go to the _Jasmine Dragon_ tea shop for help from Iroh and Zuko, she had hoped that they would be of good service. Taking a left turn to where the shop was, she bumped into a pair of people with such force that it caused them to fall to the ground.

"Oh!" She gasped, rubbing her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bump into anyone."

"You're forgiven," said an elderly man and a young man with a distinctive scar on his face.

"Mr. Iroh," the princess said, "and Zuko. I was coming to see you two for help. What are you doing outside the tea shop?"

"We had received an invitation to serve tea to the Earth King," Iroh explained, which didn't sit too well for Yue; if anything, it made her suspicious. "What help did you need us for?"

"Katara," she revealed. "Last night, she was kidnapped. All that was left was her water skin. I can't find her and I'm trying to avoid the presence of the Kyoshi Warriors because I don't believe they're who they claim to be."

The retired general and banished prince looked at the princess and believed her, wanting to get to the bottom of this, and invited her with them in the hopes of figuring this predicament out one step at a time. This way, if something went wrong, they could handle it carefully.

Yue agreed, also hoping that Sokka, Aang and Toph would get back soon and help them if such trouble became a bad reality.

-x-

"…Ah, it feels good to be on the old saddle again," said Toph, expressing her relief that they all wouldn't be riding on Appa bareback again now that his saddle had been restored to him. "Aang, how'd it go with the guru? Did you master the Avatar State?"

Aang paused for a moment, recalling Pathik's words that if he left without opening all his chakras, he wouldn't enter the Avatar State at all, and then lied to her with, "Yeah. Everything went fine, and I've fully mastered the Avatar State."

"Hopefully, this war will end sooner than later with it, huh, Aang?" Sokka asked, although it was half-hearted; he was still worried about his sister and Yue. _Please, be alright._

-x-

_This palace is larger than I ever thought it was, initially,_ thought Yue, as she helped Iroh and Zuko setup the tea for Kuei, who had taken longer than expected to show up if he had invited them over to serve him tea.

"I didn't think that His Majesty took this long," said Zuko, pouring Yue a cup of lychee-flavored tea.

"Maybe the Earth King overslept?" Iroh suggested.

Suddenly, the room was filling up with several Dai Li agents that came in and surrounded the trio.

"Something's wrong," Yue said, afraid of these Earthbenders that were supposed to have been disbanded yesterday.

"It's tea time," they heard a female voice, as another person entered the room, sporting Earth Kingdom clothing and walking toward the table where they sat.

"Azula?!" Zuko gasped.

"Uh-oh!" Yue gasped, unable to comprehend why the Fire Nation's princess was here.

"Have you met the Dai Li? They're Earthbenders, but they have a killer instinct that's so Firebender. I just love it." Azula told them.

"But the Dai Li were disbanded," Yue told her. "They shouldn't exist any longer for helping Long Feng assume control of the city."

"It's called breaking the rules," Azula told her back. "You should try it sometime."

_I've already broken rules,_ the princess frowned, and then saw Iroh and Zuko get up.

"Did I ever tell you how I got my nickname the Dragon of the West?" Iroh asked them.

"I assume it's because your Firebending abilities are vastly superior to most others?" Yue asked him.

"I'm not interested in another lengthy anecdote, Uncle," said Azula to him.

"It's more of a demonstration, really," went Zuko, who, after watching Iroh drink his tea, grabbed Yue to duck before Iroh unleashed a breath of fire at the Dai Li, mirroring the move of an actual dragon.

"Whoa!" Yue gasped, unable to believe that she was seeing this with her very eyes; it was remarkable to know that a Firebender was capable of imitating a dragon's firebreathing.

BLAST! Zuko blew a hole in the wall and they escaped out of them, away from the enemy and down the hall. He created another fireball and blew another hole down the hall which led outside the building, which only Iroh and she jumped out through; Zuko had stayed behind to deal with Azula.

-x-

"…It looks like Momo's the only one here," said Sokka, as Aang, himself and Toph returned to their Ba Sing Se home after meeting with the Earth King to ask about Katara and Yue. "You were right, Aang; the girls are in trouble."

"Hey," went Toph, "someone's at the door."

Just then, a knocking came, and the blind Earthbender smiled.

"Two people, and I know them; it's Yue and another friend I met not too long ago." She approached the door and opened it, revealing the Tribal Princess…and the retired Fire Nation general, Iroh, together.

"Yue!" Sokka said, partially relieved that his girlfriend was okay, so much that it put aside his disbelief that she was with a Firebender. "Are you alright? Do you know where Katara is? What happened while we were gone?"

"Trouble," Yue told him, and then explained all that had happened to him from her own experience, but she intentionally left out her spiritual journey, mostly because she didn't want to hurt him with what she almost did. "…And now Azula's in the city and the Dai Li are still in business, despite the fact that they should've been disbanded, and Zuko's been taken prisoner by his sister."

"Then we have to work together to fight Azula, and save Katara and Zuko," went Aang, which left Sokka a little conflicted with such a suggestion; it was because he didn't trust Zuko, being a Firebender among Firebenders that wanted to capture Aang more than anything else in the world.

"Sokka, Katara and I met up with Zuko and Iroh at their tea shop," Yue explained to him. "He might not be interested in capturing Aang, anymore. He's already been banished from his home and if his father, Fire Lord Ozai, thinks very little of him, what point or other reason does he have to go back? He never even tried to fight us when he served us tea."

He nodded and took her words for what they meant.

"Okay, I'm in," he agreed. "They're in trouble, the city's in trouble, and working together's our best chance of saving them."

"We brought along somebody that might be able to help, as well," said Iroh, presenting them with a Dai Li agent with a scar on his face, tied up so that he couldn't Earthbend properly.

Toph Earthbended two slabs to bring him up off his feet while Sokka demanded information.

"The Fire Nation's princess and Long Feng are plotting a coup to overthrow the Earth King," the agent revealed to them.

"And my sister and Zuko?"

"They've been placed in the Crystal Catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se, along with three others."

"Old Ba Sing Se?" Yue asked him.

"The underground city that remains undisturbed after it was abandoned in favor of the surface world."

_I guess that would be a good way to deal with most people that can't bend the ground; you put them in a place that others don't go to at all. We better go there now._

-x-

"…So, you really had nothing to do with this?" Jet asked Zuko, having been thrown down here with Smellerbee and Longshot not too long ago after the banished prince was.

"I'm not responsible for what Azula's doing," he told them, facing away from them. "I was just living here in the city with my uncle, minding my own business, until all of the sudden, she finds out that we're here and captures me while the Water Tribe's princess and my uncle escape; I stayed to buy them some time. Heh, I even challenged my sister to an Agni Kai, but she chose not to busy herself with fighting me."

"It sounds like your sister's twisted," said Smellerbee, "and in a bad way."

"It's like my uncle said: She's crazy and needs to go down."

"Just what is it with the Fire Nation wanting to get rid of the Avatar, anyway?" Jet asked the banished prince. "I mean, he's the only one that can restore balance to the world, end the war and stop the suffering that we're all going through, and your country's trying to prevent that from happening. He's been revered throughout history for being able to do the impossible and making miracles happen, and it's like you have a grudge against him just for existing. Why, I ask, does the Fire Nation see him as such a threat? You know, many of us have lost more than our homes to the war; we've lost friends and families. My parents were taken from me when I was eight years old."

Zuko looked at them with an expression of disturbance, like they had gone crazy or something.

"What, you think I'm lying?" Jet asked him. "Ask anyone else that has lost people. Ask Smellerbee; she lost her little brother almost two years ago before we met her."

"There's not a day that goes by that I forget their last expressions when our house was razed to the ground," said Smellerbee, the very memories of that time repeating themselves now.

"And him?" Zuko asked, pointing to Longshot.

"He lost his father and elder sister to the soldiers that came right through their village. They didn't even do anything wrong to deserve such harassment."

Zuko then looked toward Katara and asked, "And you?"

She sighed and said, "The Fire Nation came to my tribe and took my mother away from me."

Seeing her place her fingers on her choker, the banished prince said, "I'm sorry. I guess that's something we have in common. I've not seen my mother since my grandfather, Fire Lord Azulon, passed away years ago."

-x-

"…So, Iroh," went Yue, as she, the retired general and Aang traveled down long tunnel that Aang made longer through his Earthbending while Iroh kept their path lit with Firebending. "Toph thinks that you give great advice, not just tea."

"The key to both is the proper aging," Iroh told her. "So, what is on your mind?"

After she had decided to go with them while leaving Sokka, Toph and Momo to go try and stop the coup before it happen, she wanted to know much about Aang's chakra training to see how well he did.

"Well, I was told by a previous Avatar when I had somehow entered the Spirit World to listen to the words of the guru Aang was seeing…" She had started, but Aang lost his focus on the tunnel and stopped bending.

"You mean Guru Pathik? You were listening to him?" He asked.

"Yes. I was told by a previous Avatar from the Water Tribes to listen to him and open my own chakras and bring balance to myself." She told him, and he resumed his bending of the tunnel.

"Go on," Iroh told her.

"I was attempting to open my last chakra, but in order to do that, I had to let go of someone I love…and I just couldn't do it."

"Just like me," they heard Aang said. "I couldn't open my last chakra because it meant letting go of someone that I love…and I didn't want that just for control of the Avatar State and all the power that comes with it."

"Heh-heh! Perfection and power are entirely overrated," said Iroh to them. "I believe you two to be wise at choosing love and happiness instead."

"Gee, thanks, Iroh," said Yue to him, smiling at his opinion.

"But what happens if we can't beat Azula?" Aang asked, concerned. "What if…without the Avatar State…I won't be strong enough to save the city?"

"I don't know the answer to that," Iroh confessed. "I guess our predicament is not so different from this dark tunnel: You can't always see the light at the end, but if you just keep going…"

He was cut off by Aang Earthbending the tunnel completely open, revealing a large, underground location with several stone buildings integrated into the cave walls, a waterfall pouring into a pond and crystal stalactites and stalagmites covering inches of the place.

"You will come to a better place," Yue finished for him, stunned by the beauty, "and it looks like we have. We really have."

"Old Ba Sing Se," Aang exhaled. "This place must be underneath the entire city, not just the palace."

-x-

Sokka couldn't believe this to be happening right now! Not only had he and Toph been soundly defeated by the three Fire Nation girls that had been chasing them, disguising themselves as the Kyoshi Warriors to gain entry into the city, but they'd been rendered immobile by the girl known as Ty Lee, all the while Azula assumed complete control over the Dai Li from Long Feng, who'd been forced to surrender control of the Earth Kingdom to her. But he still believed there to be a last chance at saving the country; all they had to do was regroup with Yue and the others and defeat the Fire Lord's daughter before things got too out of hand.

Three Dai Li agents threw him, Toph and the Earth King into a metal prison cell and left them alone; they were always under the impression that even the greatest of Earthbenders could never been metal, no matter how skilled they were.

"How long do you think it'll be before we start to regain control of our bodies, Toph?" Sokka asked the blind Earthbender.

"I don't know," she responded, "but when we do, do me a favor and keep a lookout for any Dai Li that might be outside."

"No problem."

-x-

BLAST! Aang had blasted a wall down with his Earthbending and revealed the location of Katara and the others.

"Katara, we've found you!" Yue cheered, seeing Jet, Zuko and the other two Freedom Fighters.

When Aang had run over to embrace Katara, Yue had noticed how he glared at Zuko…and then noticed how Zuko had returned the glare when Iroh went and hugged him. She couldn't help but wonder if the person Aang said he couldn't let go of because he loved them was Katara, which would've explained his glare toward Zuko; the Last Airbender didn't want the banished prince to wind up with the only person that was able calm him out of the Avatar State and teach him Waterbending.

_He's not so different from Sokka,_ she thought.

"Go help your friends now," she heard Iroh. "We'll catch up with you later."

Katara and them left; Yue had stayed behind to tell Zuko something.

"Zuko, I hope that in the near future, you'll do the right thing," she told him and then ran off to rejoin her friends.

Zuko, not so unsure of why the Tribal Princess would hope that he'd do the right thing, when so many others had expected him to do the right thing, his uncle among them, couldn't help but question what the right choice was. In one hand, his sister, from much earlier, had tried to convince him to help her take the city completely for the Fire Nation in return for his honor, his rightful place on the throne and his father's respect, and in the other hand, simply restoring balance to the world, ending the war, stopping his country before they hurt more people than they already have. He knew what his uncle had taught him about the Four Nations and they were meant to be just that, but he felt conflicted now. Which choice was the right one?

"_Zuko, I hope that in the near future, you'll do the right thing,"_ the princess' words repeated in him.

-x-

"…Leaving so soon?" They heard the Firebending prodigy as they ran back to the tunnel Aang made to enter the catacombs; the Fire Nation's princess had been chasing them now. "I think not!"

Azula shot a large blast of blue flames toward them, but Aang and Katara shielded them all with the water running through the channels of the pool near them.

Longshot fired an arrow at the princess, but she burned them to dust before they could even make contact with her legs.

Katara bended a large amount of the water out of the channel and tried to slam it down on Azula, but the princess deflected with a short blast of her blue flames; Katara, however, kept her momentum and spun around to slam the water on her again, but Azula wasn't the least bit worried about this; she evaporated the water with a wall of flames, creating a mist of steam, blinding them from seeing her.

"Up there!" Smellerbee gasped, pointing up at Azula, who had appeared above their heads.

She fired two blasts of flames at them, but Aang sent two chunks of the ground at them, stalemating the assault on their lives again, after which he Earthbended the column of rock that Azula was standing on to crumble, making her fall in between all of them and the channel of water behind herself. She had been trapped and outnumbered six to one, raising her fingers to unleash her flames at them. She looked at the Northern Water Tribe Princess, blamed her for bringing a resistance group to try and keep the city safe from the Fire Nation, even though she wasn't a bender, that she couldn't do what most others could by themselves.

BLAST! A reddish-orange fire blast was shot right between Aang and Azula; the blast came from Zuko and Iroh, standing atop a small gathering of crystals.

Azula looked toward her brother with a harsh expression that was returned by Zuko, who then did the unimaginable and imaginable at the same time: He unleashed several more fire blasts at his sister, who blocked them with her flames.

"I never expected this from you, Zuzu!" Azula shouted, now up against seven instead of six; she still counted Yue even when she wasn't a bender, and Iroh didn't take part in the battle.

"Yeah? Well, I've seen plenty of what the Fire Nation has done to others and wish to put an end to it!" Zuko told her, and then Aang used Airbending to blast Azula off her feet and into the water, which Katara bended to rise above her from behind.

Yue couldn't believe this. It was three benders against one, each with great experience from the past to draw upon, and they had cornered Azula. It was like the universe had just answered a prayer made too long ago.

-x-

"You see any Dai Li nearby, Sokka?" Toph asked, having regained control of their bodies an hour ago.

He looked out of the door and told her the cost was clear.

"But what can you do? There aren't any rocks." He asked her, seeing her get near the metal door.

"Watch this," she responded, and then crunched the door open.

"Wow, when did you learn that?" He asked her.

"I'll explain later. We got to get out of here." She told him.

"Wait! I'm not leaving without Bosco!" The Earth King told them, but Sokka grabbed him by his left hand and pulled down the hall.

"We all have someone we're not leaving without," he told the King, referring to himself not wanting to leave without his sister and Yue.

-x-

BLAST! Azula launched larger fire blasts at Zuko and Aang while trying avoid the water whips used by Katara, who had now covered all but her own head in water to get her.

Because they lacked any bending skills, Jet, Longshot and Smellerbee, along with Yue, stayed on the sidelines to avoid getting in the way with Iroh, who watched his nephew assist in bringing defeat to his sister for the fate of the city.

Aang Earthbended a large piece of rock to slam onto the ground, creating an bomb-like effect that knocked the Firebending princess off her feet, but it knocked him off his, as well; he still needed to work on the more-damaging skills of his Earthbending training.

Azula quickly got up and unleashed a sheet of blue flames at Zuko and Katara, evaporating the leftover water and keeping them at bay.

"Uh-oh! Trouble!" Smellerbee pointed toward the walls opposite of theirs; the Dai Li had shown up.

"We got this!" Jet said, and charged with his hook swords pointed forward.

-x-

"Oh, come on," said Ty Lee to Bosco, trying to get him to perform one of her moves as Mai just sat on the steps leading to the Earth King's throne. "It's easy enough to do. Just walk with your front paws instead of your rear ones, like this."

She performs her handstand in front of him, only to be buried up to her head in the ground by Toph, while Sokka had out his machete in case Mai tried to fight back.

"That is a nice trick," said Toph, bending a block out of the ground to fight Mai with.

"Just take the bear," said Mai, not even interested in fighting them.

"That works," said Sokka, and the King ran to get his bear.

"Bosco!" Kuei cheered out happily, and they all left the two girls alone.

"Now, we just to find Yue and the others," Sokka told them, running down the stone steps outside the palace to the tunnel that led to the catacombs. _I hope they're alright._

-x-

The Dai Li had given Azula a great advantage against her brother, the Avatar and the Soutern Water Tribe Waterbender; with more skilled benders than they were, she had victory in the palm of her burning hand.

Yue was unable to believe this: Longshot had run out of arrows to fire, Jet had lost one of his swords, and Smellerbee had to reduce herself to watching the Tribal Princess because she couldn't defend herself from the enemy. It made her feel like a waste of space, even when she had been helping her friends much of the time. She saw Aang looking onward as more Dai Li had entered the battle, and saw Katara perform her octopus form to defend herself and Zuko, who now had an injured left arm because of the Dai Li. While Iroh and she had been left completely alone by them.

_There's too many of them to fight,_ Yue thought, praying for a miracle.

And then, she saw Aang Earthbend a pile of crystals over himself. She wanted to believe that he was preparing some sort of sneak attack on the Dai Li, but something in her heart told her it was something else; something greater.

"_Prevent a fatal happening for one person, and you change everything for the new future," _she recalled Avatar Kyoshi's words in her vision. _Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no!_

She climbed up the wall behind them that lead partially behind the other Dai Li agents as the small formation of crystals that Aang hid under burst in a beam of light, which the Avatar rose up on.

The Dai Li shielded their eyes from the intense light Aang had made as Katara and Zuko watched in amazement, never seeing him ever do this before; it was almost similar to when he'd been freed from iceberg when they met him.

As Yue watched, she also noticed that Azula right behind Aang on the ground, performing a strange, circular motion with her arms; there was also something like fire generating around them.

"No," she gasped, and suddenly felt light on her feet, as though she were thrown right between Aang and her.

Azula fired a bolt of lightning, intending to end the last of the Air Nomads once and for all, but gasped in astonishment; her intended target had been replaced by Princess Yue! The Tribal Princess had taken the shot!

"Aaaaaaahh! Aaaaaurgh!" Yue screamed, feeling an intense pain she had never felt before; it was like every inch of her had been set ablaze by the lightning bolt attack.

Aang, once his glowing had ceased, saw Yue in need of help, having taken the shot that was intended for him, and gasped, sending an air blast toward Azula, blowing her off her feet and hard onto the ground in front of the Dai Li. It had happened so fast, there was no time to dodge, and it was the most unexpected thing to have occurred.

-x-

Sokka, feeling like a sharp blade had been driven through his heart, had arrived down the tunnel that Aang and Yue used to enter the catacombs, and gasped at the sight of his girlfriend having been attacked by Azula.

"YUE!" He screamed, running down the cave wall and charging through the Dai Li to get her as she fell down, both the front and back of her chest smoking.

Aang used his Airbending to slow her descent so Sokka could catch her, and then came down himself. When Sokka caught the fallen princess, the Air Nomad became frightened; the princess had an injury that started on her back of her torso and ended at the front of said torso, leaving her in critical condition that needed to be treated.

"Yue? Yue!" Aang said her name, but the princess didn't respond, looking unconscious because of the attack that should've been meant for him. "It's my fault."

Katara then gathered the water around her and Zuko and created a large, spinning ring that brushed the Dai Li backwards, away from them so that they could get to Aang, Sokka and Yue.

Zuko had never expected this of his sister; he knew she was capable lying and bossing others around, but he never anticipated that she would use lightning against another person. But then again, he'd seen her attack Iroh, so he could tell a little that she was capable of some forms of torture. But this…this was beyond torture. He then turned to see Azula, who was getting back up, having avoided Katara's recent attack, and went over to grab her by her collar.

"What is wrong with you?!" He asked her. "Are you crazy?!"

But instead of answering him, she struck him with a regular fist to the face, causing him to release her to rub his injured cheek.

The Dai Li started to get back up, but Iroh intervened with a wave of fire.

"You got to get out of here," he told them. "Go! I'll hold them off for as long as I can."

"Are you sure?" Sokka asked him.

"Yes. You got to help her. Go now!"

They all left while leaving was still an option available to them. Sokka, unable to handle Yue's weight, had to let Zuko carry her out of the catacombs as they left through the tunnel. Unfortunately, Azula wasn't satisfied with simply hurting Yue; she wanted some prisoners.

"I'm afraid that leaving isn't an option," they heard her coming in from behind, accompanied by at least one Dai Li agent.

Sokka, irritated to the extreme with her, took out his boomerang and hurled it at her.

"Aah!" The Dai Li agent gasped, trying to bend the tunnel walls faster than the boomerang was moving, but he couldn't, and Azula, taken by surprise, was struck hard in the face by the boomerang.

As the others made their escape, Toph made part of the tunnel cave in to buy some more time. They got out of the tunnel, climbed aboard Appa's saddle and took off into the night.

-x-

Iroh, only intending to hold the Dai Li off long enough for the others to escape, surrendered peacefully and was then immediately surrounded by a gathering of crystals the Earthbending agents bended up to his neck. Looking at his niece, who was now sporting a bleeding right cheek, courtesy of Sokka's boomerang, he couldn't help but think of how her beauty now matched her craziness, and then turned his head away from her in shame.

Azula, in pain by what that peasant boy from the South Pole had done to her face, swore revenge on him and the Tribal Princess…if she wasn't dead from the lightning attack she had intended for the Avatar to take.

-x-

"This isn't good," said Katara to her brother, examining the injury on Yue's chest; it wasn't as bad on front as it was on the back, but it needed to be healed immediately.

Sokka, recalling his gift before they left the Northern Water Tribe, pulled something out from under his shirt; it was an amulet similar to Katara's, also filled with water from the Spirit Oasis. Pakku, as requested by Arnook, had given this to Sokka in case someone he cared for needed it, and now someone he cared for needed it.

Katara bended the water out of the amulet and made it spin around to trigger the special properties it contained before applying it on Yue's back wound while Sokka held her still; everyone else watched in the hopes that it would save Yue. Applying the water on her back, Katara and Sokka waited for something to happen…and were hurt to see that water hadn't healed her wound as they had hoped.

"No," Sokka cried, holding her close to himself.

"Urgh," they heard a groan come from Yue, whose eyes were half-opened, looking up at Sokka. "Sokka? Is…Aang alright?"

As more tears fell from his eyes, he told her, "You did it, Yue. You saved Aang."

The princess then passed out again with a smile, proud to know that the Avatar was unharmed…and glad to be with Sokka once more. As sleep claimed her, she could recall only bits of what she had done; that, in that single moment of salvation and despair, she had let go of her love for the boy to save one that could restore balance to the world. She had let go of him…only once, just to protect another's life…and she wasn't going to let him go again.

Kuei looked down at the city as they all fled into the night, unable to see any hope left for his home. Being relieved of his birthright, his very status to the throne, had shattered bits of the hope the people had in Ba Sing Se being the only place left in the Earth Kingdom that the Fire Nation couldn't claim for themselves…and now they have claimed it.

"The Earth Kingdom…has fallen," he said, deprived of his hope.

Zuko, angry at himself for being unable to prevent this, said, "The Earth Kingdom will be free again…in the future."

"Yeah," agreed Aang, steering Appa away from the walls of the city and into the cloudy night. "The Earth Kingdom and its people will be set free once more."

Sokka, also believing the country would be set free again, looked at his boomerang, which now had a smear of blood on it that bothered him a bit; he had never harmed someone with it like he did to Azula, and couldn't face what the others might ask of him about it. He just wanted to continue worrying about Yue until she fully recovered.

_It looks like the Four Nations has been reduced to the Three and a half Nations,_ he thought, since one of the nations had only three live relics of its existence and another nation had just been taken over after one-hundred years.

"I hope we can find someplace that's safe," said Toph.

"I think I know one," said Aang and Sokka.

"…The Fire Nation can't have taken it completely," said Aang by himself, steering Appa toward the great unknown. _Yue saved my life back there. I can't believe she took the shot for me. I owe her big time for this._

Back in the city, the Fire Lord's daughter, now having a bandaged cheek, looked out at the night as she could only think of three different things: Returning home, bringing her uncle back as her prisoner and consolation prize due to not having her brother…and planning her future strategy to take down the boy that ruined her face.

_He'll pay dearly for this,_ she thought, a small lantern behind her now burning blue instead of reddish-orange; it fell under her control.

A/N: I told you that Sokka would hurt someone! I bet you never expected it to be Azula, and now she's angry and vengeful over it. I could write an alternative to this chapter's ending or go straight to the next chapter that will take place in the third season, but I'll need time to think of which to go with. I'm leaning toward the next season now that I have Yue injured instead of Aang; it'll help in the fact that I made the story for mature readers. Any way, please review this chapter and tell me what you think of it. Jet's alive, Zuko's part of the group now and Azula might be sporting a permanent injury on her face like her brother, since, well, let's face it, no Waterbender would probably heal her. Ja mata ne!


	9. The Princess Lives On

Creation began on 09-07-10

Creation ended on 10-03-10

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess Lives On

A/N: Well, now, I intend to make some layers of things more mature so that the next batch of chapters go well. I hope those that liked the last chapter enjoy this one. Like most of everything else, there's bits of deviation allover. Now we begin.

_Yue…Yue…_ A quiet voice went, making a pair of closed eyes flutter. _Yue, you must wake up._

The eyes opened, revealing themselves to be a pretty pair of blue orbs, belonging to an equally-beautiful young woman.

"Urgh…ugh…" The woman groaned, trying to raise herself up off from where she was laying, her vision blurry from the lack of energy that was lost while she was sleeping. _What…what happened?_

As her eyesight became less blurry, she saw, to her greatest horror, a flag of the Fire Nation in front of her. There were three torches lighting the room she was in, and she had bandages wrapped around chest; her lighter, Northern Water Tribe travel ware had been opened up and removed to allow the placing of the bandages. In fear, she got out of bed and tried to stand, but could only manage to stagger as she tried to get out. Based on the architecture of her surroundings, she deduced she was inside a ship.

_I got to get away from here,_ she thought, opening the door and staggering out into the hall._ I…I have to find Sokka and the others._

She leaned against the walls for stability and dragged herself forward, but when she turned a corner, she came across two men in Fire Nation uniforms.

"Hey!" One of them, looking like a large wrestler of some sort, gasped, pointing toward her. "She's awake now!"

She panicked and tried to run back the other way; she wasn't going to let them take her prisoner like they had probably done earlier.

"Hey, wait! Come back!" The man yelled at her, and she found a latter going up.

Climbing it, she reached an open hatch and stood out on a deck, the sky wrapped in night and the deck itself occupied by several other people in Fire Nation uniforms and cloaks.

One turned her way and gasped, "Yue! You're awake!"

When he tried to approach her, she panicked and yelled, "Don't come near me!"

He stopped and removed his helmet, which was masking his face and voice, and revealed himself to be Aang, wearing a disguise.

"Yue, it's only us! Your friends," he told her, and then every one else removed their helmets and cloak hoods, which had hidden their faces.

Aang, Katara, Toph, Zuko, Jet, Smellerbee and Longshot, and with them were some men that she didn't recognize, but by their faces and eye color alone, Yue could assume they were from her sister tribe.

"But…where's Sokka?" She asked them.

"Hey, have you guys seen Yue?" She turned around and saw the one she was looking for, also wearing a Fire Nation uniform, but with a worn expression on his face. "I went to the bathroom for five minutes and when I went back to the room, she wasn't there, anymore… Yue? You're awake."

"Really? It feels like I'm dreaming," she told him, feeling dizzy. "I…I think I need to…"

"Uh-oh, she's going to…" Toph went, but Sokka caught Yue before she fell to the ground, passing out from overexertion.

Sokka carried her back to the room and laid her on the bed and then sat there in front of her, just as he'd been doing every day since they left Ba Sing Se.

-x-

Mai was depressed again, as always, but this time it was worse. She had hoped that she'd be going back to the Fire Nation with Zuko coming along, that they'd be able to talk and hang out like before, but instead, based on Azula's information, he had betrayed the Fire Nation and joined the Avatar's group. And yet, something in her heart told her not to blame him; that maybe Zuko would come around and come back home on his own. He was the prince of the Fire Nation, a potential successor to the Fire Lord. But then again, such a fact was more like a pipe dream. At least knowing that Azula's face was injured by that boy from the Water Tribes made her a little happy; she had never expected that her friend would be stripped of some of her beauty.

_Zuko__…why'd you really do it?_ She wondered, looking up at the moon.

-x-

"…Just what is going on?" Yue, once she had recouped enough to simply converse with the others, asked them. "Why are we on a Fire Nation ship? Why are you all in their uniforms…and why am I the only person out of it?"

"You need to take it easy," said Katara to her. "You got hurt pretty bad. You have nice brown hair growing out of your head, by the way."

"Huh? What are you talking about? I haven't had brown hair ever since I was…ever since I was a baby that was on the verge of death." Yue said, disturbed by this.

Katara bended some water out of her cup and froze it into a makeshift mirror for the princess to see herself through; Yue saw that on the scalp of her head was light, brown ridges of hair growing underneath the predominant white hair that she had throughout her childhood, as well as having some brown on the edges of her ponytail and bangs.

"How long was I out?" She asked.

"Five days," answered Sokka, barely taking a sip out of his cup of water.

"Five days? It felt longer than that."

"It's relativity, Yue," went Aang. "I was in a block of ice for one-hundred years and when I got out, I thought I was only in the ice for just a few days."

"Okay…that's depressing," the princess told him.

"Yeah, it is… Oh, my goodness."

Sokka looked at what Aang was staring at, and found Yue's chest was bleeding…again. Yue saw this and suddenly tilted over into her boyfriend's arms. If this was going to become a habit of hers, she needed to stop it.

"Come on, Yue, you need to go back to your room and continue to recoup." Sokka said to her, not wanting her to bleed her last drop after waking up from her five-day reinforced nap.

"You should go with them, Katara," suggested Aang. "Yue looks like she needs a healing session."

"Good idea," said Katara back to him. "I got to teach you how to heal for later, afterward."

Yue soon found herself sitting cross-legged on the floor of the room, removed of her bandages and upper body garments, leaving her naked from the waist up with Katara on her right side; Sokka, due to Yue not wanting him too far away, sat outside in the hall, promising not to peep. Since his sister was going to tend to his girlfriend, he had some time to tend to his boomerang, which still had the blood of Azula smudged on it; he had never used it to brutally assault another person before in his life. As Katara bended water from two large bowls onto Yue's front and back, the Waterbender couldn't help but grimace at the raw, damaged flesh on the princess' chest, just above and in between her sternum, connecting to the damaged flesh on her back.

"Tell me where your pain feels most intense," she told Yue as the water started glowing.

"A little lower," Yue groaned; the water's healing properties were stinging her. "Aurgh!"

She recalled seeing Aang in the Avatar State as he rose out of that small tent of crystals he placed himself in; the healing was triggering her past memories to act up.

"Wow, you're definitely in the right area, Katara," Yue told her.

"You have a lot of energy that's twisted up in your chest," Katara told her, removing the water from her sternum. "Let me see if I can…"

Her back arched up, her bosom bounced a bit, and her eyes widened as she recalled another memory: It was Sokka, looking down at her as she laid in Appa's saddle, her own eyes half-closed as blood ran down her mouth; the aftereffects of her taking the lightning bolt strike that Azula intended for Aang.

"I…I took the shot for Aang and then went down," she gasped. "I didn't just get hurt, did I? It was…worse than that. I…I was gone, but then Sokka and you brought me back."

"I just used the Spirit Oasis water that Sokka was given in case someone needed it," Katara explained. "I'm not sure what we did."

"You helped save me," Yue told her, feeling the half-mended flesh of her sternum, not looking as raw as it used to. "Thank you."

Outside the room, Sokka shed a few silent tears; if what Yue said was true, and she was…gone for a while, he'd do everything in his power to keep her alive this time.

-x-

"Do you have a minute?" Zuko asked Aang, as the Air Nomad looked out at the ocean water. "I just need to ask you something."

"Yeah," Aang responded.

"Well, since I've sided with you guys to end the war, I'd like to know what your next plan of action is."

"We're waiting for the day of the invasion to take place, after which we'll defeat Fire Lord Ozai and end the war, restoring peace and freedom to the world," he told the banished prince.

"And what of your plans for learning Firebending?"

"I don't have any plans for that; I tried it before, and I hurt someone with it. I know that I'm going to have to learn it, eventually, but not right now."

"I could teach you Firebending," Zuko told him.

"You?"

"Yes. You've seen me in action before, many times, and I got better each time. So I'm not a Firebending Master, I learned from the best one: My uncle. He taught me everything I know."

"I've only ever seen Iroh Firebend once, and that was back in Ba Sing Se; his way of Firebending seemed different than the ones the other Firebenders use."

"Yeah, I've noticed. I even asked how it is so, and all he really told me was that he learned from Firebending Masters that were greater than the ones in the military. I never understood what he meant by that."

"Maybe I am supposed to learn Firebending from you, Zuko."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

The two benders looked up at the moonlight and sighed.

"Nice moon," Zuko said.

"Yeah," Aang agreed. "Say, Zuko…what did you want out of this war and why?"

"What did I want?" Zuko asked. "The very things I wanted when I was originally chasing you: I want my honor, my birthright, and my father to not think that I'm worthless."

"What? Why would your father think you're worthless? I've seen you fight and you're very capable."

"About three years ago, before I was banished…and scarred, I took part in a war meeting I wasn't supposed to be in…and when I found out that a division of trainees were going to be sacrificed in order to distract a battalion of Earth Kingdom soldiers, I spoke out in defense for them. I was sentenced to an Agni Kai by my father after what I said that was a form of disrespect toward the general that suggested the division of trainees be sacrificed, which I accepted, thinking that my opponent was the general."

"But something tells me that this general wasn't your opponent, wasn't he?"

"You're right; the general wasn't my opponent when I showed up to the Agni Kai. My opponent…was my own father."

"What?" Aang gasped. "How was your opponent the Fire Lord?!"

"You see, while I had spoke out against the general's plan and the general himself, I had done so in the Fire Lord's war room; therefore, it was my father whom I had disrespected. Back then, I wouldn't dare fight my father."

"But…if you didn't fight, then…there shouldn't have been an Agni Kai duel at all, right? I mean, it never happened."

"Wrong. It still happened…but not in the proper way. I pleaded to him for forgiveness, but he told me the worst words that still plague me: _'You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher.'_ That's why I have this scar…and that's why I'm banished from my country."

Aang couldn't believe it; it was difficult to understand that Zuko had been abused by his own father like that. But he couldn't forget that one-hundred years ago, when he visited the Fire Nation and met his closest friend that lived there, Kuzon, he had learned about Agni Kai matches and how they were used as last resort methods to settle disputes gone wrong.

"Does the Fire Nation use Agni Kai matches to settle everything they think has gone wrong now?" He asked Zuko.

"More or less," he answered the Avatar.

-x-

After setting the fresh bandages in place, Katara left Yue to her privacy and went back to the deck of the ship. Yue was sitting down on the bed when Sokka entered with a tray of food.

"I thought you might like something to eat, Yue," he told her, and got a response from her growling stomach. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm a little better, thank you for asking," she responded, turning to face him, and found him turning his head away from her; he didn't do it out of disrespect, but out of the fact that all she had on her chest was her new bandages, which left very little to the imagination of the Water Tribe boy. "Oops, sorry about that."

She covered herself up and had him sit with her. Sokka was as nervous as a Dragonfly after seeing Yue's bandage-covered bosom; most of his memories of her in the past since she joined them on their journey through the Earth Kingdom, she was either in her warm climate clothes or her under garments whenever they were by a river or lake. He always respected her privacy and would never stoop to the level of a pervert.

"Yue," he started, but found some trouble getting the rest of his words out of his mouth. "Did…did you have any dreams in the last five days?"

Yue looked at him and answered, "I think I did. I can only remember speaking to two people I've not seen before; one looked like a man that almost resembled Iroh, except taller, older and accompanied by a dragon, while the other was a woman that reminded me of Aang."

_Sokka, you need to take more concern for Yue's life,_ Sokka scolded himself. "Say, was the man dressed in Fire Nation clothing, as well?"

"Mm-hmm."

"That must've been Avatar Roku."

"The one before Aang?"

"Yes."

"He's very unhappy."

"Who, Roku?"

"Yeah. He doesn't like how this war has hurt many; he feels that it's his fault."

"How's it his fault? He wasn't around when the war started."

"No, but he told me he was around when it was going to."

"In your dream?"

"Yes. He told me that he should've taken steps to prevent the war before it happened. He views all the tragedies that have occurred in the one-hundred years as a result of his mistakes…his restraint. But he hopes that Aang, the only one that can restore balance to the world, can redeem him."

Sokka and Yue then took a bite of the bread that he'd brought her; Yue noticed that Sokka seemed to have a lot on his mind.

"You're awfully quiet, Sokka," she told him.

"I just… Back when we were in Ba Sing Se," he told her, "I thought that that was it for us, that you were gone. I mean, you just took the shot and… That was a really reckless move, Yue, and you were the only one that saw what Azula was going to, didn't you?"

"I'm sorry, Sokka, it just happened. If I made you worry, I apologize."

"No, it's not that. It's…I… Hey, I just realized something else that happened before Azula shot you down: You were right in the air where Aang was, and there weren't any Earthbenders nearby to propel you up there. How'd you do that?"

Yue remembered that back in the catacombs that day, she had simply leapt up into the air and hovered in front of Aang to protect him from Azula, and she had never leapt that high in her life. It was as though…as though she had wings or something.

"I…jumped…" She said, unsure if that was true or she was just jumping to a conclusion. "I jumped…really high."

"Well, Yue, that was a lucky jump you made, but please, don't ever do it again. If anything, you were lucky enough to have survived getting shot by lightning only once. You might not get lucky a second time, and I won't risk your safety against Azula or any one else."

Yue heard the concern in his tone of voice and promised that she wouldn't do such a stunt again.

"Sokka, what else has happened while I was out of it?" She asked him.

"After we left Ba Sing Se and came to Chameleon Bay, we met up with my Dad and some of the warriors of the Southern Water Tribe; they were about to attack some of the Fire Nation ships before they saw that you were hurt. So, rather than take on every ship that was occupying the bay, we simply invaded this one and used it as our disguise, which would explain why we're wearing their uniforms. We've seen a few of the other ships, but they haven't really made any attempt to bother us, so, hopefully, by the time we're out of their range, we should be able to come up with a few new ideas for the invasion of the Fire Nation…since it'll be a while before we gather up the Earth Kingdom forces. The Earth King decided that he wanted to travel the rest of the world and left in disguise."

"Earth King Kuei left by himself?"

"No; Bosco went with him. We just crossed through the Serpent's Pass two days and are slowly exiting Earth Kingdom waters."

"Wow… Wait a minute, the Serpent's Pass? Now, I'm wishing we were in Full Moon Bay."

"We're fine, Yue; my Dad had informed us about why it's called the Serpent's Pass: It's not named for its appearance…but for the serpent that lives in it. We haven't seen it so far and it seems to only attack when it feels it's been provoked."

"Okay, I'm taking your word for it," she told him, and then decided to reveal something to him. "Sokka, there's something I need to tell you that I should've told you back when we were in Ba Sing Se. You remember that day when we were making the signs of Appa and I was daydreaming?"

"Yeah. You said you were dreaming of living on a mountain made of water." Sokka recalled.

"That wasn't what I was really dreaming about; what I had dreamt of was what might've happened back at the North Pole had Zhao killed the Moon Spirit: I saw myself as a glowing spirit and I gave you what was, most probably, my last kiss to you before I left this plane of existence."

"You mean, you dreamt of something like that, as well?" Sokka asked her.

"Hmm? What do you mean, as well?"

"I had a dream about that back when we met the Foggy Swamp Tribe while looking for an Earthbending Master for Aang after Bumi had become an unavailable option. It wasn't the only time I had a dream like that. There have been at least eight others, all the same, ending on that sad note: You leaving after the Moon Spirit was harmed. I don't know why I kept having that dream, but it seemed more realistic than my previous dreams…"

"Like the dream you said you had where food eats people and Momo was talking and saying some very bad things?"

"Yeah."

"I'd have to choose for the dreams that don't make sense than the dreams that reveal what might've happened had things went wrong."

Suddenly, the alarm went off, and they heard fast footsteps approaching the room. The door opened and Aang stepped in.

"There's a Fire Nation ship coming our way," he informed them, putting his helmet on to hide his arrow tattoo. "Your father and Bato are about to try and handle the situation."

Sokka got up and told Yue that he'd go help them in case something went wrong; he wanted her to stay in the room where it was safe until he came back.

Yue hoped he did come back.

-x-

"Load the Toph!" Toph yelled out, minutes after the opposing Fire Nation warship found out that one of their other ships was being used by the enemy.

Jet's other friends, Pipsqueak and The Duke, brought her a large boulder that on the ship to be used to catapult against an enemy's defenses and the blind Earthbender unleashed her might upon the other warship, sending several disk-shaped rocks toward them.

"I'm gonna give us some cover before things get worse," said Katara, and she Waterbended the ocean water to become steam in between the two ships.

Meanwhile, Yue, who stayed in the room like Sokka told her, was worried about what was going on up.

_I hope we don't have any serpent trouble,_ she thought, worried some more due to their current location. _Please, let the universe be merciful upon us._

At the same time, on the deck, Sokka said, after Toph asked how they were doing, "Things couldn't any worse than they are."

SPLASH! The waters burst and they saw a giant, green serpent rise in front of them, hissing.

"Uh-oh!" Aang gasped.

"The universe just loves proving me wrong, doesn't it?" Sokka questioned.

"You make it too easy!" Toph stated.

The serpent seemed about to attack them, when the other Fire Nation ship had launched a fireball that hit the serpent, and instead of going after them, it went after the enemy ship. This bought them time to flee and head to safety.

"Thank you, universe!" Sokka cheered.

A few hours later, in the darkness, the ship had docked at a small pier near a Fire Nation colony in the Earth Kingdom and the group had gone out to eat, though Aang had to wear a bandanna to cover his arrow as to not draw attention from any Fire Nation people present. But it was Yue who was concerned about drawing attention because of her hair. She kept turning to see if anybody was looking at her, only to find several children throwing glances her way; it was like they had never seen a girl with white hair with bits of brown. It was disturbing her. She couldn't take this.

"I'll…see you guys later," she got up and left.

Zuko got up and followed her, even when Sokka got up to go comfort her. Finding her sitting by the docks, they stood behind her.

"They're just kids, Yue," Zuko told her. "They were only curious. It wasn't like they knew you."

"I don't blame them for their curiosity," the Tribal Princess told them, "but it was bothersome that they wouldn't stop throwing glances at me."

"You're not the only one who had glances thrown at oneself before."

"You mean yourself, Zuko?"

"Yeah. I get looked at a lot because of my scar. I pay them no mind, though. I'm used to it. I've had three years to do so."

"Before I was shot down by Azula, I was used to my white hair…except now I have white and brown, so it bothers me to have people stare. But I don't want to cover it up."

"Then don't," went Sokka, sitting next to her now. "They don't know you, so pay them no mind."

She looked up to him, and then caressed the fish he carved for her.

"Sokka, you're very sweet," she told him, and then kissed him again.

"Ugh, I think I better go," said Zuko, needing an excuse to get away from their moment of passion.

-x-

Even after her injury had been cleaned up and treated, Azula was less than pleased and had a good reason to be. She'd been assaulted by a mere Water Tribe peasant with a boomerang, not even gifted in the art of bending. He had forever scarred her beauty with a scar that ran deeper than any other, even deeper than Zuko's. She would obtain her vengeance from him once she had found a way to do so. The Avatar became the least of her concerns, along with the Tribal Princess and Iroh; she just wanted the peasant boy erased from the world.

_I will make him pay for this,_ she thought, waiting outside the war room to meet her father. _If it's not the last thing I do._

-x-

"…Crescent Moon Island looks like a good place to start," said Aang to the group, as Appa was nearing said island where its volcano was still spouting lava a little.

"Crescent Moon Island, huh?" Yue went, seeing that it looked like a crescent moon. "This was where a temple for Avatar Roku once stood, right?"

"Yeah," said Sokka to her, "and it was where we first learned of Sozin's Comet and what we gotta do before it comes."

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Yue, Toph, Zuko, Jet and his Freedom Fighters, Appa and Momo had left the stolen Fire Nation ship to start their journey through the Fire Nation while the others left to gather their other friends and allies from across the Earth Kingdom to prepare for the invasion that they hoped would be beneficial to their desire to end the war and restore balance. It was here that many things would start anew.

"So, Zuko," went Jet to the banished prince, "what does the Fire Nation look like in terms of its environment and architecture?"

With only his memories of before he was banished, Zuko explained that his home was very unlike the Earth Kingdom; there were very few trees, many buildings, several mountains on some of the islands and the Fire Lord's home was located on the largest island of the archipelago.

"…So has it been for the last one-hundred years," he finished.

"So, then, what we've heard about the Fire Nation being in heavy construction…is all true," said Sokka. "I believe that drill that nearly took the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se down is clear proof of their heavy industries, along with their factories, warships and tanks."

"If we win this war, all of that must stop," said Smellerbee.

"Yeah," said The Duke.

As they were getting set to leave the island and venture deeper into Fire Nation territory, Yue couldn't help but utter some appropriate words: "We are going into the inferno."

"Yeah, Yue," Sokka agreed with her, "we are going into the inferno. Into the inferno and back again."

A/N: Well, that's the start of the story going into the third season. I've acquired two of the three box sets and looking forward to acquiring the last box set, along with some other DVDs. Please, let me know what you think. The sooner I think of the best way to put it in, the better I can introduce the lemon scene between Yue and Sokka when the time is right. Well, onto the next chapter.


	10. The Princess and the School Dance

Creation began on 10-03-10

Creation ended on 11-13-10

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the School Dance

_"I'm afraid that leaving isn't an option," _she had told them as they tried to flee through the tunnel to the surface.

Then, out of nowhere, a large and deadly boomerang of ice was hurled at her, striking her in the face and leaving a bloody gash upon her face.

"Aah!" Azula gasped, waking up in the middle of the night; she'd been dreaming of what had happened back in Ba Sing Se. _That peasant._

Ever since returning home to the Fire Nation, her anger at Sokka became more directed at wanting him erased from this world than her hatred of Zuko…or even the hatred she felt for their mother, Ursa. One way or another, she would have her revenge upon them, if it was the last thing she would ever do.

-x-

As the new day went on, a large cloud so low on the ground moved toward a nearby cave; Appa, disguised by Aang by means of Airbending, was made incognito by the young Airbending Master. Once the Flying Bison got close enough to not be noticed by any unseen eyes, Aang removed the cloud bits and had Appa land on the ground.

"I still don't see why we can't start with the Fire Nation Capital right away," said Zuko to them.

"It would be better to find out anything else about the Fire Nation, Zuko," went Katara, not exactly doubting his knowledge of his own country, but he was of the Fire Nation Royal Family…and the Fire Nation itself was an absolute monarchy; it was ruled by one group of people and one group of people only. "Besides, it'll be good to see the other islands."

When they entered the cave, Jet, who didn't seem so happy with the idea, uttered, "So we'll be hiding in caves on each island we go to as we make our way towards the Fire Lord?"

"Jet, we don't have to become cave dwellers," said Sokka to him. "What we do need is some new clothes, however."

"Yeah, blending in is a lot better than hiding out," agreed Aang. "If we get Fire Nation disguises, we'll be just as safe out there in plain sight…as we would hiding in caves."

"Plus," added Toph, "they have real food out there. Does anyone want to spend their day eating bugs and worms?"

She hit the cave wall behind her and caused many bugs to fall off and hit the ground, providing Momo with a quick meal as the Flying Lemur ate the closest ones it could get its hands on.

Since they were outvoted by the need to get disguises, they left to find an unguarded set of clothes by a house not too far from the cave.

"I'm not so sure about this," Aang told them, his monk ways telling him that he shouldn't simply take without asking or stealing what wasn't his. "These clothes do belong to somebody."

"I call the silk robe!" Katara cheered, and made a go for said clothes of her choice.

"I call the dress!" Yue cheered as she made a go with Sokka to grab the clothes.

"But…if it's for our survival, then I call the suit!" He gave in and ran toward his choice of clothes since everyone else was doing it.

The person that was supposed to be watching the clothes was also asleep, so they didn't have to worry about being seen, so long as they were quick enough. When they had gathered the right ones and tried them on, Aang wore what looked like a sash over his head arrow that had a logo that reminded the Tribal Princess of said arrow, except that it was upside down when the Air Nomad found it.

"Check it out," he told his friends. "Normal kid."

Toph, however, had a problem concerning her shoes; because she was blind and required her feet to see the world around her, the shoes hindered that ability.

"I probably should wear shoes, but then I won't be able to see as well," she said, prompting Sokka to take her shoes and remove the bottoms.

"Well, Toph?" He asked her as she tried them on. "How are they?"

"Good. Thank you, Sokka. A set of stylish shoes for the blind Earthbender."

"Well, how do we look?" Katara asked, as Yue and she stepped from behind a large rock and stood in front of them; their disguises were, well, lack of a better world, very graceful.

Yue's was similar to Aang's, except larger and fitting her a little loosely, with the sash right where it was supposed to be, and she was wearing a bandanna over her head to cover much of her white and brown hair.

Sokka was speechless, almost like Aang was over his sister's outfit, but regained his voice when he heard the Air Nomad say something about Katara's necklace; it reminded him of Yue's necklace and how it didn't fit with her disguise quite well.

Yue looked at her choker and realized that, just like Katara's, it gave her Water Tribe status away very easily if people were to pay close attention to it.

Sokka threw a pair of small pouches to the girls so that they may place their chokers in them and keep them with them before they set out to the town the island hand to acquire accessories to continue blending in with the people.

Toph had acquired a headcraft that looked similar to her Earth Kingdom one, except for being gold and red, Jet, Sokka, Longshot, The Duke, Pipsqueak and Smellerbee wore top-knots, Yue and Katara got Fire Nation necklaces to replace their Water Tribe chokers for the time being, while Zuko, already passing enough with his own disguise, didn't require anything; his hair covering much of his scar and keeping his identity hidden from sight, and Aang didn't require anything, either.

"I used to always visit my friend, Kuzon, here a hundred years ago," said Aang to them, hoping that his one-hundred-year-old knowledge of the Fire Nation would see them through. "Just follow my lead and stay cool. Or, as they say it in the Fire Nation, stay flamin'!"

Then, they walked out into the small crowd of people, trying to blend in as much as possible; only Aang seemed to fit in a little with carefree personality.

"Greetings, my good hot man!" The Air Nomad greeted to a man eating a shish kebab.

"Uh, hi," the man responded. "I guess."

_Okay,_ thought Yue, uncomfortable with how that went, _his knowledge might be a little outdated. Maybe even too outdated._

As they continued to walk, they stopped at what appeared to be a butcher shop; Aang was uncomfortable with this.

"Oh, we're going to a meat place?" He asked Sokka.

"Come on, Aang," he tried to reason. "Everyone here eats meat, even the meat."

Yue looked and noticed a cow-hippo eating some meat that had flies over it.

"Ugh," she shuddered, wanting to forget seeing that.

"You guys go on ahead," he told them. "I'll just get some lettuce out of the garbage."

_Can't change your habits in this life,_ Yue thought, happy that Aang stayed true to his beliefs, but disappointed in leaving him alone as she joined the others to go get some meat.

It wasn't even until five minutes that some guards entered the shop and stood in front of the princess. Yue felt intimidated by the three large men in front of her.

"Just like your friend outside, it's over for you," said one of them to her, catching the attention of the others by her.

"Um, excuse me?" Yue asked him.

"It's obvious that you don't belong here, young lady," said another guard to her.

"I don't?"

"The next time you and your classmate want to play hooky, you might want to change out of your uniforms. This way, please."

They took her out of the shop and brought her to a carriage that had Aang in it; he, too, had been suspected and they were to be dealt with it.

-x-

_They think we're school students trying to cut school?_ Yue thought, as she and Aang were escorted to a large building that possessed the same logo as their sashes, and were brought to a room filled with many other kids wearing the same uniform as they were.

"And what is this?" The teacher asked the guards behind them. "Another pair of new minds ready for molding, I see?"

"Heh-heh, yeah," said Aang, knocking on his own head. "That's right. Let the molding begin."

"Wait a minute. You two aren't from the Fire Nation!" The teacher gasped, and the guards became curious as to who these two really were. "It's clear to the eye that you two are from one of the colonies and not from around here."

"Yes," Yue stated. "We are from the colonies. The Fire Nation colonies of the Earth Kingdom. The fifteenth one, in fact."

"Your etiquette is terrible," she told them. "In the homeland, we bow to our elders like this."

She demonstrated the Fire Nation greeting gesture, which Yue picked up right away, although Aang didn't pick it up until he saw a girl by her desk showing him how it was done; Yue saw that with elements, Aang was talented, but with manners, it would take more time due to his carefree personality.

"And we don't allow head coverings," the teacher told them, pointing to their heads.

"We both suffered some scarring in an accident before we arrived the day before," Yue defended the need for their secrecy, "and it's very embarrassing to show them to everyone."

"Very well, then," the teacher allowed them to be an exception. "What are your names, or should we just call you a pair of mindless colony slobs?"

"Uh, Kuzon," Aang said. "My name is Kuzon."

Yue tried to think of an alias to use while here, but many thoughts pointed to images of Katara and Zuko for some reason; Katara was the only Southern Water Tribe Waterbender she knew, personally, and Zuko was a Firebender that she was just starting to know. Her lips started moving and before she realized it, her voice uttered out, "Zutara."

School was let out later for the day, which gave Aang and Yue time to talk.

"Zutara?" He asked her.

"Zuko and Katara's names put together," she explained. "It just popped in my head."

"Sokka, he rubs off on you. At least we made it through the day…and it was kind of fun."

Momo then popped out of his coat and onto his head.

"Don't let the teachers see you with that monkey," they heard a girl behind them; it was the same girl from earlier in the classroom.

"What monkey?" Yue lied about Momo's presence.

"Don't worry. I'm not a tattletale. I'm On Ji. I like your head coverings, by the way." The girl introduced herself to them.

"Why, thank you," Yue returned the greeting.

"Say, do you two want to come play Hide and Explode with some of the other classmates?" On Ji invited them.

Aang and Yue looked at other and decided to accept the offer. What was the worst that could happen by playing with some Fire Nation kids they didn't know?

-x-

As Aang carried Yue back to the cave on his Air Scooter, Sokka was standing outside it with his sister; the Southern Water Tribe boy having a worried expression on his face from wondering where the pair were.

"Please, tell me you just had to run away from the guards and they didn't hurt you," he told them.

"We're fine," Yue told him. "We were with some kids that invited us to go with them after school."

"After what?" Sokka asked, making sure he heard right.

"The guards thought we were enrolled in a Fire Nation school because our disguises are their uniforms," Aang explained, "and we're going again tomorrow."

"Enrolled in what?" Sokka asked again.

Deep down, Yue knew she was going to regret telling Sokka everything that happened today at school, but she also knew that she nothing better to tell him than that. After a full half hour of explaining everything, her boyfriend was still less than coping with the information.

"Yue, Aang," he told them, "I'm trying to be mature and not shoot down your idea, but it sounds…really dangerous. You could get caught if the coverings ever came off or if you said something that slips into the wrong ears."

"We already have our outfits," went Jet, "what could you possibly need school for?"

"While we were there, we were learning new things about the Fire Nation, such as acquiring a picture of what Fire Lord Ozai looks like," Yue answered, and then produced a scroll with a detailed description of Zuko's father: He reminded them of Azula, albeit more masculine and almost brutal in his elegance.

"Yeah, and here's one I made out of noodles," added Aang, showing his recent masterpiece to them: It was a more light-hearted portrait than of the other one.

"Impressive, I admit, but it still sounds dangerous."

Yue could see that Sokka just didn't want them to get into trouble or have their plan to move quietly through the Fire Nation found out, but this was an opportunity to know the people that couldn't possibly be an enemy. Some of the children she had played with seemed to just not have a proper way of expressing themselves and were being drafted into the war.

"But then we'll never know about a secret river path that goes to the Fire Lord's palace," said Aang to him, trying to get him to change his mind.

"The secret river's not so secret these days," said Zuko to the Air Nomad. "The Gates of Azulon, however… No ship can pass it. It was named after Fire Lord Azulon, one of the strongest Firebenders of his time."

"We're supposed to be learning about that, as well," Yue told them.

"I am a fan of history," said Sokka, who then relented. "Okay. Let's stay a few more days."

"Thank you, Sokka," Yue praised him.

"Flame-yo, hot men!" Aang cheered before running off.

Sokka looked toward Yue and Katara, confused at what the Avatar had said, and repeated, "Flame-yo?"

"I know, I was confused when he said it to me," Yue added. "Apparently, he picked it up from his friend, Kuzon, from one-hundred years ago. That, I believe, is still being used today."

"So, um, Zutara?" Katara asked her, confused at Yue's alias at the school.

"I was improvising," the Tribal Princess defended, almost offended.

"I'm not complaining," said Zuko to them.

-x-

"Aah!" Azula had awoken from another annoying dream of Sokka using his boomerang to attack her face, scaring it. "That peasant!"

Getting out of bed, she grabbed a cloak and took a stroll out of the palace to seek out this man that she heard stories of before she left to the Earth Kingdom. She didn't want to dirty her hands with such a trivial matter just yet, but had to be sure of one such matter: There was always the possibility that the Avatar, having survived her lightning attack due the to Tribal Princess, would come to the Fire Nation with his friends, which would mean, by proxy, that the Southern Water Tribe peasant boy was with him, as well. She needed somebody to be her watcher for the peasant, whom she considered as much of a threat to the Fire Nation's dominance than the Avatar himself.

_He's supposed to be good at what he does, and even better at keeping secrets,_ she thought, wandering through the alleys toward this building that was her destination. _If the Avatar is here in the Fire Nation, then I want this man to track down the peasant and end him._

-x-

As the new day started, Yue yawned from a good night of rest, finding Sokka asleep right next to her; the Water Tribe boy was, supposedly, watching over her, but in all honesty, he was just trying to be close to her at all times since he worries.

_We really need to have more fun every so often,_ she thought, checking her bandaged injuries before setting back on her disguise.

Leaving the cave to head toward the school, Aang noticed that Yue didn't seem in high spirits.

"Something troubling you?" He asked her.

"Was it just me, or does Sokka not take time to have a bit more fun than he should be allowed to?" Yue asked him.

"Actually, Yue, ever since what almost happened to you back in the Earth Kingdom… He just doesn't want you to get hurt like before. He worries constantly, hardly even going to the bathroom while you were unconscious for five days after Azula shot you."

"I'm not as fragile as I used to be back in Ba Sing Se or at the North Pole. I just need to know some moves so I can defend myself."

"Yeah, that would put you on some even ground if you knew how to fight. I guess I could teach some of what I know."

"But you're an Airbender, and you lack any offense."

"Sometimes, the best offense is some defense, just like with Waterbending."

"Yeah, that's true."

Once they reached the school, Ms. Kwan asked the class to recite the Fire Nation's oath, which, unknown to her, Aang and Yue had no knowledge of; nobody had informed them there was an oath to be recited. When they started, both were a few beats behind, with Yue trying to hear what the students were saying, but Aang kept messing up.

"_My life, I give to my country. With my hands, I fight for Fire Lord Ozai and our forefathers before him. With my mind, I seek ways to better my country. And with my feet, may our March of Civilization continue." _That was how it was recited, but due to Aang's gibberish, as well as the speed and tone in which the students were going in, Yue heard nothing but gibberish.

"Fire Lord… Forefathers… Firebenders… Blah, blah, blah, blah," went Aang, which then earned multiple giggles from the surrounding students; Yue felt embarrassed to be using an alias that made her related to him.

Ms. Kwan, however, wasn't pleased, and resorted to having the class take a pop quiz on the Fire Nation's history of the war, which irritated the students.

"First question: What year did Fire Lord Sozin battle the army of the Air Nation?" She asked them, but Yue raised her hand first, not to answer, but to question her.

"Zutara?" She obliged, and Yue stood up.

"Is that supposed to be some sort of a trick question?" She asked. "You see, the Air Nomads didn't have any military due to their beliefs and spirituality. Fire Lord Sozin defeated them by ambushing their temples."

The entire class was left in awe at such a revelation, but not Ms. Kwan.

"Well, I don't see how you could possibly know more than the Fire Nation's history books…unless you were there one-hundred years ago." She told Yue.

"I asked my grandmother, who told my father…who told me," she told her.

-x-

It was only their second day of school and already, they were beginning to detest it. Much of the Fire Nation's history of the war was warped and the belief that the Air Nomads had a military was clear proof of that, but what added a new wrinkle to their day was the music class. The instructor had given Aang a Tsungi Horn while Yue was given an ordinary flute; the princess didn't even know how to play the flute. When the music teacher made the class begin, the princess tried to play to the best of her abilities, but her noise fell on deaf ears when the Air Nomad started to play the horn and move his feet about in a wild manner.

"Kuzon?" The teacher asked, and Aang stopped his movements.

"I know, I'm terrible at the Tsungi Horn," he confessed.

"No, sir, that hullabaloo going on with your feet. Is that a nervous disorder?"

"No, sir," went Yue to the teacher, "he was only dancing. You do dance in the homelands, right?"

"Sorry, we don't," responded another classmate of theirs, Shoji.

"I'm afraid that dancing isn't conductive in a learning environment," the teacher told them. "Young people must have rigid discipline and order."

"But…what about the right to express oneself?" Yue asked him again, and the teacher explained that the Fire Nation's people probably care about their nation so much that they feel they can't control themselves properly, and added that if her brother felt the need to continue doing so, he could…but quietly so that the rest of the orchestra wouldn't be disrupted. _They don't allow self-expression, either? That's low._

As the class resumed its music lesson, Aang and Yue had set their instruments down and were obviously discontent with the way the school operated.

-x-

By the time of recess and lunch, the school students were whispering around Aang and Yue; the pair (or maybe just Aang) had caused a sensation with their presence.

"Kuzon," Yue used his alias as they sat on a bench and ate their lunch.

"Yes, sis," he responded.

"I really hate our lessons," she confessed.

"Me, too," he replied.

Suddenly, their classmates, On Ji and Shoji, showed up and sat by them.

"Kuzon, I liked the way you were dancing in the class," On Ji told Aang, which surprised the pair.

"Really?" Aang asked. "Thanks. Uh, I could show you again, if you like."

Before she could make a response, another student showed up by them; he was large and looked like he had a grudge against the two colonists.

"What'd you say, colony trash?" He asked Aang. "You're gonna show her something?"

_Okay, this isn't good,_ thought Yue, as Aang explained that he was offering to show her how to dance.

The next thing the Tribal Princess saw the student try to fight the Avatar, saying that nobody was allowed to teach _his_ On Ji anything, which included movements. But Aang, being the bender that he was, evaded every punch and kick this guy threw at him, causing him to, eventually, lose his footing and fall and hurt himself, scraping his left palm, leaving Aang unscathed. Yue knew from that moment that this guy was something similar to Hahn: A total jerk who thought that he could have anything that he wanted and whoever he wanted.

"…Picking fights on your second day of school, Kuzon?" Her train of thoughts was broken by the voice of the school's headmaster.

_Uh-oh,_ she thought; if this was the headmaster, then things could've gotten serious with him.

"We need to have a conference to discuss your penalty," the headmaster told Aang. "Bring your parents to my office after school."

"My parents?" Aang questioned; this was an impossibility due to the fact that this Air Nomad was the only known one of his society…and because he had no knowledge of his parents, who were long dead. "But, sir, I…"

"Don't be late," the headmaster told him, and then walked away.

As the other students left, the Avatar and Tribal Princess were left alone with their predicament.

"Well, it looks like we'll have to bring our parents into the fold, now, won't me, brother?" Yue asked him, having gotten an idea.

"What are you talking about?" He asked her, not liking the smirk that appeared on her face.

"What might Sokka do if he had to attend a meeting that involved bringing his parents, only nobody knows they're not with him?"

Then, Aang smirked, as well, getting what she said.

-x-

"Thank you for coming, um…" The headmaster said, but then realized that he didn't know the names of Kuzon and Zutara's parents.

Sokka, wearing a fake beard and mustache, responded, "Lava. Wang Lava. This is my wife, Sapphire, and my brother, Li."

Katara and Jet, both wearing similar disguises to mask their ages, sat beside Aang and Yue; the Waterbending Master disguised herself to look like an expecting mother while the leader of the Freedom Fighters wore a similar mustache.

"Nice to meet you," Katara greeted the headmaster.

"Well, Mr. and Mrs. Lava," resumed the headmaster, "your children had been enrolled here for just two days, and have already caused several problems; your daughter has argued with the history teacher while your son disturbed the music class and roughed up my star pupil."

"Goodness, that doesn't sound anything like our Kuzon," went Katara, feigning shock. "The disturbing and roughing up. And why would Zutara argue with the history teacher?"

"Whatever the reason, I intend to take care of it," Sokka uttered, feigning the need to discipline his 'children'. "If I ever find out you two have done something like this again, you're both going to get the beating of your lives. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir," Yue and Aang responded, while knowing that Sokka wasn't serious, they had to feign fear.

"That's what I like to hear from strict parents," said the headmaster to them.

They then got up to leave, glad to be away from the school.

-x-

FLARE! Several torches burned blue as Azula practiced her Firebending. Try as she might, she still couldn't get the image of Sokka's boomerang damaging her face out of her head. Oh, she hated him. She hated him a thousand times more than she hated her brother, mother and uncle, even more than the Avatar himself, who was the bigger threat to the Fire Nation's victory in the war, regardless of their apparent victory back in Ba Sing Se.

_This man I see tonight better be worth my time,_ she thought, defeating another bodyguard whilst referring to the man she had heard about, who wasn't around last night, but was informed of her need of his services and would be available tonight. _You will pay, you lowly peasant._

-x-

"…Okay, that settles it," went Sokka to Yue and Aang. "No more school for you two."

As they were all back in the cave, and because Sokka still had the fake beard and mustache on his face, Yue tried to reason with him again.

"We can't leave yet, Sokka," she told him. "We already found some problems with the school that are very severe: Their version of the war's history is whack, they believe in discipline and order, and they don't allow anyone to express themselves. It makes the attempt at fitting in their society all the more difficult. I mean, it's nice to be normal around them, but they don't act the way normal people should. Sokka, you're one of the only people I know that's normal all the time."

"Ha-ha!" Toph laughed in a mocking way; Yue always seemed to believe that Toph enjoyed putting him down just because he couldn't bend an element.

"Hey, we can't bend, either, Toph," went Jet, sticking up for Sokka, Smellerbee, The Duke, Pipsqueak and Longshot, all of whom couldn't bend.

"If those Fire Nation kids are supposed to be the future of their home, then we need to show them a little taste of freedom if we're to change this place for the better," added Aang.

"What could we possibly do for them?" Zuko asked him, hoping his idea wasn't to take them on the journey; it was mostly because Appa got tired quicker from carrying so many of them already.

"Yue and I thought about it on the way back," he told the banished prince. "We're gonna throw them…a secret dance party!"

Everyone was stunned, but Sokka made the first recovery.

"You're kidding, right?" He asked.

Later, in the nighttime of that day, the group was putting the final touches of the dance party: Toph bended the ground to create a large bandstand, Katara a Smellerbee preparing the beverages, Pipsqueak and The Duke tasting the beverages, Sokka and Zuko arranging the candles so that there would be enough light to see, which, for some reason, was a problem for Zuko, whose Firebending was much weaker than it shouldn't have been when he last used it in Ba Sing Se. Jet and Longshot were keeping an eye out for the students, whom Aang went to gather earlier.

"I don't know about this, Yue," went Sokka, completely unsure about this dance party. "It just seems so… I don't know…silly."

"Don't think of it as silly, then, but as a universal culture of the development of body movements," Yue responded, tapping her feet around the ground. "Loosen up some."

Suddenly, Toph went, "Jet and Longshot are returning."

Just as she said it, the leader of the Freedom Fighters and the young archer returned.

"Aang's bringing them in a few moments," Jet told them.

Yue went over to Appa and sadly had to tell him that he would have to wait out back.

"Grrr…" The Flying Bison grumbled in acceptance and went out back.

"I know, Aang tells me you have fancier feet than anyone…and you got six of 'em!" Yue tried to cheer him up.

As the bison left, the Air Nomad and the Fire Nation students arrived, and then the party began. Several musical instrument-bearing students were on the bandstand playing tunes, trying to get the party going somewhere, but the students were just standing around, divided by gender; boys were on the right, girls were on the left.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Aang went, introducing the band, "the Flameos!"

"Yeah, this ought to get the people moving," went Yue, and then she turned to see, to her greatest surprise so far, that the students weren't dancing at all. "Or not."

"So, what do we do now?" One of their classmates, Shoji, asked them.

"Well, this is where you all start dancing," the Tribal Princess explained to him.

"Uh, I don't think my parents want me dancing in a cave," went another male student that reminded Yue of a turtle; this stemmed from watching his head sink into his shirt like a turtle.

"Yeah, what if we get caught?" Another boy asked them.

"Oh, man. New lesson from the old days: Dancing isn't something you simply think about. It's a form of self-expression that's unique to each person that performs it, and it cannot be easily taken; an art that has been around for far too long can never be taken." Yue informed the boys.

"Maybe it was different back in the colonies, Zutara," went Shoji to her, "but we don't do that here."

"Oh, yes, you have," Aang told him. "In fact, you have been for countless generations. I happen to know a few dance moves myself. One-hundred years ago, this style was known as _'The Pheonix Flight'_. It was a popular move."

The Avatar then squatted and ran across the ground like a runaway bird, attracting the attention of the students as they gathered to watch.

"And this was known as the _'Camelephant Strut'_," he showed them as he hopped around on each foot, then somersaults in front of two girls that giggle before him, and then he somersaults backwards to land on one foot, bowing to them.

Yue could tell, from their crazed faces, that the students were amazed.

"Who knew that Twinkle Toes could dance?" Toph said to the others, who sat down to enjoy some cold drinks.

Katara, while not responding to her comment, smiled at Aang's dance performance.

When the Avatar did another somersault, a student asked Yue if she knew of any dances that Kuzon did, only to stutter a little as she recalled her knowledge picked up from the Earth Kingdom.

"Yes. We discovered how the people of Ba Sing Se dance in the ballrooms," she told him, teaching the motion of passing his arms from side to side as you step, and no sooner were the others imitating her. "Yes, like that. That's the sound of feet being happy."

"Wow, they look nice together," said Jet, referring to Yue and the boy, which made Sokka a bit unnerved and displeased.

"If that's what you want to call it," he responded, wishing it were he instead of the boy dancing with her right this moment.

"Yeah, you go with that flow," went Aang to the students as they got into dancing now. "Everybody, freestyle. Yay!"

As Yue watched them express themselves, she noticed that Sokka hadn't budged from where he sat, and decided to do something about that. Quietly moving towards him, she held out her left hand right in front of him; he'd barely noticed her being there with his mind elsewhere until he saw her hand.

"Oh, I don't know, Yue," he tried to back out kindly, not wanting to embarrass her in front of everybody. "My shoes don't seem fit for dancing, and I'm not even sure I could…"

"Just take my hand," she told him, smiling.

"Okay," he gave in, and took her hand, getting up onto his feet and being led into the crowd of dancers.

She stopped and turned to face him, putting her hands in his and began to move her head to the rhythm, or nigh-rhythm of the music that was being played; Sokka decided he would watch her movements in order to dance for himself. The next thing they knew, the music had started to shift into something extremely different; the sounds became more upbeat and wild, as though someone had changed the setting for the instruments and started adding their voice to the music.

_'"Don't look, don't look," the shadows breathe… Whispering me away from you… "Don't wake at night, to watch her sleep… You know that you will always lose… This trembling adored… Tousled bird mad girl…" But every night, I burn… Every night, I call your name… Every night, I burn… Every night, I fall again… "Oh, don't talk of love," the shadows purr… Murmuring me away from you… "Don't talk of worlds that never were… The end is all that's ever true… There's nothing you can ever say… Nothing you can ever do…"…'_

Yue and Sokka were catching people's attention as they danced around, hand in hand, really close. Sokka had noticed this and felt very nervous.

"Yue, everyone's watching," he informed her, blushing a bit.

"I'm not worried about them," she responded. "I don't see them right now. It's just you and me, by ourselves on the dance floor."

Those word put confidence back in him and they continued.

_'Still, every night, I burn… Every night, I scream your name… Every night, I burn… Every night, the dream's the same… Every night, I burn… Waiting for my only friend… Every night, I burn… Waiting for the world to end…'  
_There was a long silence of words not being used with the music made by the Flameos, during which several students were wondering just who was the young man that the girl was dancing with in a way that seemed so traditional and, yet, almost like a classic._  
'"Just paint your face," the shadows smile… Slipping me away from you… "Oh, it doesn't matter how you hide… We find you if you're wanting to… So, slide back down and close your eyes… Sleep a while, you must be tired…"… But every night, I burn… Every night, I call your name… Every night, I burn… Every night, I fall again… Every night, I burn… Screaming the animal scream… Every night, I burn… Dreaming the crow-black dream… Every night, I burn… Screaming the animal scream… Every night, I burn… Dreaming the crow-black dream… Dreaming the crow-black dream… Dreaming the crow-black dream… Dreaming the crow-black dream… Dreaming the crow-black dream…'_

As the music ended, Sokka had, unknowingly and quite professionally, tilted Yue, and with a happy smile on both their faces.

"Wow," Yue told him.

"Yeah," he told her back.

"I had no idea that Sokka was quite impressive," said Toph, impressed by the Water Tribe boy.

"He's just full of surprises," Katara responded, herself impressed that her brother was very good at dancing, though she deduced that it had more to do with who he was dancing with than his own skills.

-x-

Azula, having spent a successful three hours practicing her Firebending, fell to her knees, exhausted and sweating, with three hairs out of place. The bodyguards that helped her would've said that she was killing herself with the training, but then would've probably been burnt by her flames. The Crown Princess had an obsessive need for perfection and more power, as shown by her blue flames, and further down her road, a desire for revenge. They would've believed that stemmed from her brother's betrayal, or the Avatar's escape, but they would've believed wrong.

_Sooner or later,_ she thought, getting back up after she caught her breath. _Sooner or later, your time will pass, you filthy peasant._

Images of Sokka being burned alive by her flowed into her eyes, and his boomerang being incinerated to nothingness followed suit.

-x-

As the dance party went on, with Aang and Katara dancing away with Yue and Sokka, many of the students were caught in the moment of actual happiness at expressing themselves with their movements, especially the boy students that had eyes toward the girl students. It was an indication of love at first sight, only held back by school.

"This is amazing!" The boy student that Yue nicknamed Turtle uttered. "It's like all of my inhibitions have disappeared."

Suddenly, several students gasped at the sight of two truant officers and the Fire Nation School Headmaster, having found them due to the student known as Hide, the same boy that lost his fight to Aang in the school yard.

"Okay…they're back again," Turtle sighed, his head sinking back into his collar shirt.

When Yue and Sokka stopped dancing to see what was going on, the headmaster saw her and Aang and declared, "They're the ones we want! The two with the head coverings!"

Aang and Yue looked at each other and decided to take the path of resistance than the path of defeat, and ran to hide in the crowd.

The truant officers ran after them, and one thought she found the girl named Zutara and grabbed her, only to see that it was just another tall girl that had covered her hand with the sash of her uniform.

"Hi, are you looking for someone?" She asked the officer.

The other officer thought he had found them, but instead caught two other students that were passing themselves off as Kuzon and Zutara.

"Hey, how are we doing?" The boy student asked.

"Do you need something?" The girl student asked.

In less than a minute, all the students had made themselves look like Zutara and Kuzon, wearing head coverings to fool the headmaster and officers.

"Hi, there."

"Over here."

"Do you need something?"

"Hey, there."

While Aang and the others made their escape down the tunnel that Appa had left through earlier, Yue, who was the last one to leave, stopped to take one last look at Shoji and On Ji, who made the Fire Nation gesture before bowing and winking at her. She returned the gesture and then departed. Fleeing from the cave, she hopped on Appa like the others had and the Flying Bison took off into the night sky.

"Huh?" Katara went, looking over at Jet, who still wore that ridiculous mustache on his face. "Jet, we're okay. You can take that off now."

"Un-uh," he replied. "Thanks to Sokka, this is permanently glued to my face."

Jet had said it so smugly, he almost reminded her of her brother. Almost.

"Way to go, you two," Toph told Aang and Yue, whom had removed their head coverings to reveal their tattoo and hair, respectively. "I think you actually helped those kids by teaching them to be free."

"I'm not so sure about that," said Yue to her. "It was just a dance party, and the first one I had ever been to."

"Well, it was some dance party, and one that I liked the most," went Sokka, who kissed her on her left cheek, causing her to blush.

Katara did the same to Aang, causing him to blush.

Zuko, with another positive smile, sat back against the edge of the saddle and applauded the Air Nomad boy and Northern Water Tribe girl.

"Flame-yo, you two. Flame-yo." He told them.

-x-

At night, the industrial areas of the Capital City of the Fire Nation look like they've been cloaked in darkness that even blue fire couldn't expose to light. This was where Azula had traveled to in order to meet this man she'd been looking for the previous night. Removing her hood from her head, she revealed herself to whatever eyes that were lurking in the shadows of the alleyways that covered the street she was on. Then, she heard a clanking noise and turned around, seeing two large boots approaching her way; the left leg was a regular boot while the right leg was made of metal; it was a sort of mechanical prosthesis for this person. Whoever this person was, he'd been in some serious cases of injuries or was just unlucky from the start.

"It's good to meet you for the first time," she told the man. "I've heard things about you. They say that you're good at what you…and even better at keeping secrets about what you do."

She then produced four pictures of the people that were top priorities for this mysterious individual and gave them to him; his left hand accepted the pictures, as his right hand was a mechanical claw of some sort to go along with his right leg. The first picture was of Aang, the second was of Sokka and, the third was of Yue and the last was of Zuko.

"These are the four that are a primary threat to the Fire Nation," Azula stated, "while you may do whatever you wish with my brother, the Avatar being the boy with the arrow tattoos, know that they're a secondary concern to me. The girl is a secondary concern to me, as well. The boy that helps them is the one I want you to focus on. Find him…and then reduce him to ash."

The man nodded that he would deal with them, revealing a third eye that was tattooed, vertically, on his forehead, and he left the streets to prepare for his journey to hunt the quartet of targets and waste them.

Satisfied that she had met this man with a reputation for his abilities and getting him to do her bidding, Azula returned home to rest, her scar irritating her so much that the healers that served her family found that all they could advise her on was to apply the special remedy they gave her and request that she not touch the scar until it healed to a considerably-decent degree. At least she would obtain the satisfaction that Sokka would be dealt with for injuring her with a crudely-made weapon.

A/N: Tell me what you think so far. Things are coming together slowly and at a settle speed, but things shall come full circle in due time. Also, Zutara seemed to be a perfect alias for Yue, and because I had to confess that I don't like fanfiction with the pairing, but the designation sounded good for a name. If any were wondering about the song, it's called _Burn_ by _The Cure_ from the movie _The Crow_. As always, review and I'll get to you on whatever questions you have. Peace!


	11. The Princess and the Teacher

Creation began on 11-14-10

Creation ended on 02-10-11

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Teacher

A/N: After thinking about, I've decided to exclude several episodes of the third season and move onto the other important ones, but I shall make it so that they're mentioned in small conversations. I don't want to keep you readers in permanent suspense of what may and will happen. Onward to the future for the better.

"…I think the stars here in the Fire Nation are a bit brighter than they were back home," said Jet, as the group was just spending the night gazing at the stars and passing meteorites.

"Yeah, they are," Aang agreed.

"This is really nice to watch and do nothing," added Katara and Smellerbee.

"It kinda makes me see how small we really are to the rest of the world," went Sokka, who, unlike the others, was holding Yue's hand as he watched the passing meteors.

"Yeah, we are small, compared to the rest of the world," Yue agreed with him.

"Hmm, you've seen nothing once, you seen it a thousand times," uttered Toph, reminding them, subtly, that as a blind person, she couldn't see the stars or meteorites like they could.

"Try and picture it as a shower of rocks, only they're going down a waterfall," Yue suggested, not wanting her to feel left out. "Or a large ocean of mud with bits of rocks sticking out."

Suddenly, Zuko noticed that one of the meteorites was falling much closer to the Earth.

"Oh, Toph, you have never not seen anything like this before," he gasped, as the meteorite passed by them and crashed.

"Whoa!" Toph gasped.

They got up and ran toward the fire-filled crater where the meteorite impacted; it was a small distance near a town, unaware of the fire that started.

"We gotta stop this fire before it reaches the town," went Katara.

"Not if we can stop it," Aang told her.

They divided into three groups: Aang, Toph and Zuko (who still had weak Firebending abilities for some odd reason) would try to limit the range of space the fire had so that it couldn't spread any further toward the town; Katara, Yue and Smellerbee would go toward a creek and gather as much water as they could to extinguish the fire; Sokka, Jet, The Duke, Pipsqueak and Longshot would keep an eye out for anyone that showed up; they wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible while here in the Fire Nation until the Day of Black Sun.

Momo flew up and landed atop Yue's head, causing the Tribal Princess to pat his head.

Zuko tried to make the fire go lower in an attempt to extinguish it, but all the fire did was what fire normally did: Burn. With that failure, he threw dirt on the flames to drown them out. He, nor any of the others, couldn't figure out why his Firebending had decreased in strength in past few days since he joined up with them.

As they got to the creek, Katara bended a large amount of water from it while Yue and Smellerbee used a pair of buckets to collect small amounts. Appa took off and they returned the water and gave it to Aang, who, along with Toph, were Earthbending trenches that limited the fire's expansion, reducing the flames to covering just the short amount of grass that was around the meteorite's crater. The Avatar took the giant glob of water and spun it around in the air, releasing a shower of it to drown out the flames, but all it did was reduce them by a small amount; the water wasn't enough. Yue and Smellerbee held out the buckets full of extra water and Katara bended them to create a secondary glob to give to Aang, who made better progress. He spun it around faster than the previous glob and expanded until it exploded into a shower of snow, which laid an end to the remaining flames.

"Impressive," said Smellerbee. "I had no idea that Waterbending could be used to make snow."

"Well, when you live in the North and South Poles, you have an endless supply of snow…from an endless supply of water and ice." Yue told her, looking at the impact crater and seeing the meteorite cooling down, surrounded by a thin layer of ice, which Momo slid across.

-x-

The following day, the group was at a restaurant in the town that was nearly destroyed, eating and conversing. It turned out that the town's folk had no idea of the fire that started because of not only the distance, but the fact that they were asleep.

"…The worst part of being in disguise around here is that we don't get the whole hero worshipping, anymore," sighed Toph, as she ate a dumpling. "I miss the love."

Yue noticed that her boyfriend, despite the conversing, hadn't touched his meal at all.

"Sokka, are you alright?" She asked him.

"Huh?" He went, startled. "Oh, yeah, Yue, I'm fine."

But the Tribal Princess knew better than to believe him when he said it in a tone that was very depressed and filled with sadness.

"You're obviously bothered by something, Sokka," she told him, and sat down on the steps beside him. "What's bothering you?"

"I feel so useless," he answered.

"Useless?"

"Yeah. Last night, it seemed like everyone did something good except me."

Yue sighed and uttered, "Bender envy."

"What?" Sokka asked.

"You have bender envy, which is common. Many people express depression like you whenever they see those that can bend their natural element do something they wish they could. You're not the only one that has it from time to time. You're not useless. You're never useless."

"Yeah, you do do a lot for the team," Aang butted in, trying to cheer Sokka up. "I mean, nobody here reads a map as well as you do, and you keep our schedules in order…"

"And none of us can do that as well as you do," Toph butted in. "I can't even read anything."

"And nobody can throw a boomerang as hard as you do," Zuko told him, placing a hand behind his head. "I can still feel the bump where you hit me on the day that we met."

"And you're good with telling jokes, too," went Jet. "I mean, look at Toph's outfit. How odd is that?"

Toph looked at Jet and sounded offended.

"What's wrong with my outfit?" She asked him.

"Nothing! I was just…just…" He tried to explain his actions, but his comment was obviously sour.

The princess sighed and got an idea.

"Hey, Katara, maybe Sokka needs a good activity to help cheer him up."

"I do?" Sokka asked her.

-x-

"Shopping!" Sokka cheered, sounding like a happy child as the group went to a Fire Nation weapons shop.

They looked around at the various weaponry that they didn't often see on the soldiers that they encountered before in the Earth Kingdom, and strangely enough, there weren't any dual swords of any kind like the pair Zuko had with him.

"Ouch!" Yue heard Sokka as he had accidentally harmed himself with a pair of nunchaku and falling against a set of pole weapons. "I'm okay."

She then noticed that, while many of the other guys were checking out gauntlets and worn-out gloves, Aang had put himself into an unusually-creepy suit of armor equipped with blades, a large, three-fingered claw for a right hand, and a ball and chain wrapped around the right shoulder, all of which was giving off an bright light to all that looked directly at it. Puzzled, she wondered why he would wear something that he didn't look like he could even move in it.

"Where did you find that thing?" She asked him, as Katara and her were drawn to the Avatar's creepy look of violence and warfare.

"It was over there by a bunch of other suits," he explained. "Pretty slick, huh? All I need now to complete the outfit is a wind sword."

"Uh, what's a wind sword?" Katara asked, shielding her alarmed eyes from the intense light of the armor, and saw Aang produce a sword without a blade.

"It's where I get a sword hilt and swing it around while bending air out like a blade," he explained, swinging the hilt around while making noises similar to those of clashing blades.

"Yeah…that's nice," Katara told him, unsure if he could even move in that suit.

"Um, is the wind sword idea yours or is it an original invention by the other Airbenders?" Yue asked, seeing that many of Aang's past Airbending techniques were either defensive or just for practical entertainment, but rarely ever used to express violence.

"One of mine," he answered her. "I had thought of it while I was in the South Pole, when Sokka commented on how my glider couldn't be used to stab. I figured that another weapon that couldn't stab would be good against an opponent. You can't really get stabbed by air."

"Yeah, that's true," the princess told him, and then backed away with Katara as the suit he was wearing tilted forward and he fell to the ground. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he answered her, groaning. "I think I'll just stick to what I have."

"And what you can carry," added Katara, as she helped him out of the armor.

Throughout the store, Sokka had examined many weapons of Fire Nation design and tried to use some of them, only to find that they were either too heavy for him to use or were just unsuited for him to use at all, and they ranged from naginatas, ball and chains, heavy maces, spears and sai daggers. Yue was becoming concerned that nothing of this idea she had thought of for cheering him up was going as she had expected, but that went away the moment she saw something catch her eye: It was a sword in a scabbard that was decorated with a dragon and everything, giving it an aura of beauty.

"Wow," she went, getting closer to the weapon, placing her hands upon the scabbard. "Such beauty."

"That's what Sokka's talking about," she heard her boyfriend say, attracted to the weapon, as well.

"You two have good eyes," they turned away from the sword and found a shop keeper in front of them. "That's an original from Piandao, the greatest sword master and sword maker in Fire Nation history."

"Do you know where we can find him?" Yue asked the man.

"Yeah, he lives up in that big castle up the road from the town," he answered her, and then walked away to resume his duties of keeping the place clean.

"I think that's what you needed all along, Sokka," she told her boyfriend.

"I needed a sword, Yue?" He asked, confused.

"No, not the sword. A master."

"She's right," went Aang, as he and the others joined up with them. "We've all had masters in the past to help us get better at what we do."

"We should go see this Piandao and find out if we can learn from him," Yue told him, explaining the reason she asked for directions, but, for some strange reason, it explain why she used 'we' instead of 'you' to express the need for Sokka to learn from the sword master.

"It's a great idea," said Katara. "I could've never gotten to where I am without Master Pakku's guidance. Everyone needs a teacher."

"I learned from the Badgermoles," Toph added in, revealing where she had learned the art of Earthbending from. "They don't talk, but they're still good to learn from."

"My uncle's the greatest Firebending instructor I know of, since he taught me everything I know," Zuko also added in.

As Sokka examined the blade of the sword, he expressed, "It would be nice to be a master sword fighter. Okay, we should go see him."

-x-

In the greatness of his time in prison, Iroh, having been sentenced to rot away by his brother, Ozai, had foreseen a great calmness of the fiery storm he had entered, and spent his time training to recondition his body whenever the guards weren't around to watch him or bring him his meals and torment him on his betrayal or past failures. His motivation was the restoration of the Four Nations and the hope that Princess Yue, who took the lightning bolt that Azula intended for the Avatar, was okay. Every so often, he performed many exercises that seemed impossible to perform, such as inverted push-ups, leg raises, sit-ups and the like. He knew that in order to keep the Fire Nation from taking the rest of the world, he'd have to be at his best.

In due time, the calmness would pass, the storm would resume its violent actions, and he intended to ride the burning thunder to escape and restore balance.

-x-

As the pair reached the home of Piandao, Sokka had learned why Yue had used 'we' instead of 'you' when she spoke to him earlier; it was because she wanted to learn the ways of the sword, as well, since she started learning some defensive moves from each of them. While he expressed some concern at her wielding a sword without proper guidance, he wouldn't stop her from wanting to know how to defend herself.

Stopping in front of the castle gates, Sokka grabbed the knocker of one of the gate doors and knocked several times, demonstrating his patience by not knocking so much. The right side of the gate opened up and revealed a large man dressed like an assistant.

"Can I be of assistance to you two?" He asked them.

"Hello, sir," Yue responded. "We would like to train with Master Piandao…if we can, please."

"I should inform you that he turns away mostly everyone that wishes to train with him," the man told her. "What did you bring to prove your worth?"

"Sorry, sir," Sokka apologized. "We didn't know that we were to bring an offering."

The man just looked at them…and then looked closely toward Yue's face before saying, "Wait a minute. Maybe he'll make an exception for you two. Come with me."

They followed him into the yard, which, to Yue, showed different things that didn't seem associated to being swordsman: There were bamboo trees, a rock garden, etc. She wondered what was the purpose of having those around and assumed they were for decoration.

Entering the castle, the large man lead them to a room where another man, one that seemed fit and unusually calm, was performing calligraphy with his back facing them.

"Um, Master Piandao?" Yue spoke up. "My name is Zutara and this is my friend…Sokka, and we wish to be trained in the way of the sword…please."

"Zutara and Sokka? Those are pretty unusual names," said Piandao to them.

"Really?" Sokka asked. "It's a pretty common pair of names from the colonies…being Fire Nation colonials and all."

_Oh, why didn't I think of a better name for Sokka than his actual name?_ Yue thought, believing she had jinxed their chances of learning anything.

"And let me guess," Piandao said, still not looking at them as he performed his calligraphy, "you two have traveled hundreds of miles from your little village where you're the best pair of fighters in town and you believe you have the right to learn from a master."

"Actually, we've been allover the Earth Kingdom," said Yue, which was a half-truth; she had been allover the Earth Kingdom, while Sokka had been allover the rest of the world.

"Yep. Here we go." Piandao responded.

"We both know one thing for sure," went Sokka, getting down on his knees with Yue. "We have a lot to learn."

Piandao finally turned around to look at them and uttered, "You're not doing a very good job of selling yourself right now."

"We know," said Yue to him. "Your butler says that when we see you, we would have to prove our worth…except the truth is that neither of us know if we're worthy of anything."

"Hmm, I see," he tells them, and then picks up a sheathed sword as he puts down the paintbrush, "then I guess we should see how worthy you two are, huh?"

They turned to face each other and then back to Piandao.

"I will train you," he tells them, which puts a smile of gratitude on their faces.

-x-

"So, uh…what should we do today?" Aang asked the others, all of whom were lying around on the ground at their campsite.

"Not so sure," answered Toph. "I already picked my toes. Twice."

"Twice?" Jet asked her.

"Well, the first time's for cleaning, but the second time's for the sweet, picking sensation," she explained to him.

"Is it always like this when Sokka's not around?" Zuko asked them.

"He's always been the one in charge of the schedule," Katara explained. "Unless you have a suggestion on what to do."

"I can't Firebend properly, anymore. My bending's weaker for some reason."

"We'll get around that," said Aang to him.

"Plus, it's really hot today," said Smellerbee to the group.

"But it's not even summer yet," Zuko expressed. "How hot could it possibly be today?"

"I don't know. Real hot?"

"It's so hot… It's so hot, Momo is shedding…like Appa!" Katara tried to joke, even plucking loose strands of fur off the lemur that was lying next to her. "Huh? Huh?"

"Heh-heh…" Zuko went, though he wasn't known for laughing; it wasn't even considered laughing, as the joke wasn't all that funny.

"I guess the jokes don't run so well in the family," said Aang, scratching his head.

"Oh, everyone's a critic," uttered Katara, having never developed a sense of humor that was like her brother's, just as Appa growled in the background.

-x-

"…A warrior practices a variety of arts in order to keep their mind sharp and fluid," says Piandao to Sokka and Yue, after careful instruction on how to view the sword as an extension of your body. "The first you shall learn in calligraphy. Write your names."

The young pair, now wearing outfits identical to Piandao, approached the table where a calligraphy set was placed, and each picked up a brush.

"How does this help?" Yue asked him.

"When you write your name, you stamp the paper with your identity. You must learn to use your sword to stamp your identity on the battlefield." Piandao explains. "But be careful. You cannot take back the stroke of a brush…or the stroke of a sword."

Yue nodded and carefully wrote her name (her alias: Zutara) on the paper, Sokka, on the other hand, was having a harder time just trying not to mess up because he hadn't written anything yet.

"Sokka, you're getting ink on your face," she told him.

"I am?" He asked, and then noticed that he was. "I am! I got it!"

He then smeared ink over his face, which he used to, quite literally, stamp his identity onto the paper, creating a inkblot face that did indeed resemble his own face.

"Wow," Yue went, "not many people can mark their place on the field like you do."

Shortly after the calligraphy lesson was passed, Piandao had them train with Fat, the butler, out on the training grounds with wooden swords. Sokka went up first, but after he made the first move, Fat had him running to avoid a butt-whipping/butt-paddling with his wooden sword, making Yue laugh a little; Sokka, even when he wasn't trying to do so, could always make her laugh. But when her turn to practice came, it was Sokka's turn to laugh, as the princess had a hard time holding her own against Fat, even when she still held onto her sword and used it to defend herself.

Piandao, who sat nearby to observe the practices, was wondering many things about the would-be battles, particularly on why Fat felt it was necessary to try and whack them in their rears whenever they ran from him.

Some time after the practice battles, the sword master took them to demonstrate another art that a warrior needed to understand in the countryside: Landscape painting.

"Landscape painting teaches the warrior to hold the layout of the land in their mind," he informed them. "Whenever you're in battle, you have only an instant to take in everything you see."

Before he let them do anything to demonstrate the art, he had them blindfolded to keep their eyes in darkness; this was part of the lesson. He then removed the blindfolds from their faces to reveal to them a beautiful scenery of a gigantic series of waterfalls that raged heavily to create a large curtain of mist that gave it an aura of mysticism. It made the young couple happy to see parts of the Fire Nation that were actually beautiful and free of any massive industry, unlike the fishing village they had traveled to when Katara pretended to be said village's patron spirit known as the Painted Lady and keeping Appa sick by feeding him berries and then putting an end to the Fire Nation factory that had been causing their river some serious pollution problems with its runoff, the same time Sokka explained further that the solar eclipse was to disable the Firebenders for at least three hours, which he had everyone believing, initially, that it would be for at least eight minutes until he told them.

"It's so beautiful," she gasped, and then Piandao grabs her and Sokka and turns them around.

"Now paint it, and no peeking," he informs them.

They started their individual painting of the waterfalls, hoping that they took in every detail in that short moment of looking. It didn't seem so hard for Yue, who used be a child on the verge of death upon birth and was saved by sacred waters and Tui herself, so she knew simple things about water, being that she came from the North Pole. But Sokka only had a different inspiration for making sure he took in every detail of the scenery: Yue herself. After she had joined up with the gang, her very presence had been his inspiration to get better at many things he'd done, no matter how hopeless they seemed to be (this being a way to say that Sokka's a Jack of all trades, but a master of none).

"I've finished," she heard him call out, just about the same time she completed her painting.

"Same here," she added, and presented hers along with his, but noticed that his, while not being at all childish like a part of her was expecting it to be out of the simple reason that she liked his attempt at calligraphy, had a description of her being part of the view. "Sokka, you added me?"

"I did?" He asked, looking at his work, not even realizing that he added her; he was just looking and saw her as part of the view. "Oh, I did. Is…that okay?"

_I wonder if I should tell him I was expecting to see a rainbow or a sun with a face on it?_ She thought to herself as she looked at her painting, which only showed the scenery as best as she could recall.

When they returned to Piandao's training grounds and it was Sokka and Yue tag-teaming against Fat in the sword practices, it was becoming a little easier for them to get the hang of using swords and seeing them as extensions of themselves. Yue aimed high while Sokka aimed low, almost overpowering their large opponent, who couldn't focus on one enemy when a second was close by to aid them.

"Sokka, Zutara," went Piandao to them, who got distracted by him, and were immediately knocked off their feet in the process. "Concentrate on what you're doing."

The pair sighed and nodded in the positive that they would.

_I guess that's a new lesson: Don't get distracted,_ thought Yue as she got up and dusted herself clean of the dirt.

-x-

"So, we started on Crescent Island," went Aang, as he and the others looked at their map of the Fire Nation, which was acquired by Zuko, "and then we went here…"

"No, we continued on this island," said Jet. "It had the school there. The island left of it had the fishing village and…"

"You noodle-brains don't know what you're talking about," said Toph, lying on her back, bored stiff. "I miss Sokka and Yue."

"Ooh!" Katara gasped. "I got one now. If you miss them so much…why don't you marry them?"

Toph turned to face away from the group; the joke was obviously ill-mannered.

"Heh-heh-heh!" Zuko chuckled. "That…was actually kind of funny."

"Ha-ha-ha!" Longshot also laughed, who still never talked as much as he fought; the joke was also funny to him.

"Well, they enjoyed it," said The Duke, while Pipsqueak caught a fly with his left arm.

-x-

The next day, after being told by Piandao the previous day of how they had a good first day of training (despite Sokka's initial belief that he messed up on everything he did), both of them passing with good colors (and Sokka only messing up in special ways), convincing the sword master that they were ready to build swords of their own, since theirs had to be extensions of themselves. Yue, after looking over the selection of good quality steel that was used in making swords, had an idea to drag Sokka along and return with a different material that she believed could be used; this was also her attempt to speak with Sokka on other interests.

"What's the plan, Yue?" He asked, now that they were away from Piandao's.

"Other than getting the meteorite from the other night, I wanted to ask you what your plans were for after the war's over." Yue told him.

"You have me stumped on that," he confessed; ever since he took part in the war, he never really thought of what he was going to do after it ended. "What about you? What are your plans for after the war's over?"

"Me? When the war's over and there's balance restored, I intend to visit our sister tribe in the South Pole and spend some time in your home. Master Pakku did say he was taking some warriors and Waterbenders there to rebuild, so it should all be like it was before the war."

"I would love to show you around the South Pole," he expressed, already thinking of the days to come when he could just show her around his home. "But I should warn you…my grandmother will ask you many questions."

As they neared their campsite, Yue became curious.

"What kind of things might she ask me?" She asked him.

"Well, she might say, 'Why is your hair white and brown, young lady? You look rather strange'."

The princess laughed and decided to answer his 'grandmother's' question.

"I would say to her…that my hair is white and brown because…when I was born, I wasn't awake. My parents couldn't get me to make a single sound. They prayed for days to Moon and Ocean Spirits and then dipped me into sacred waters. My hair turned white to show that life poured into me. And then later, while I was in Ba Sing Se, I was hurt by the princess of the Fire Nation while protecting the Avatar when he tried to protect the city from being taken. I was hit in my chest and my boyfriend saved my life when he had his sister use some sacred water on my injury. I didn't wake up for five whole days, with my boyfriend rarely ever leaving my side, and that some of my hair turned brown or was growing out as brown, which the color was when I was born. The colors symbolize how my life was saved twice. First by the Moon Spirit…and then by your grandson himself."

Sokka was happy to hear that answer, even though there were the moments of her almost being taken from him forever, and took her left hand in his right hand.

"Wow," he awed. "You never told me that, Yue."

"You never asked. Your grandmother did. But I'm glad you were there to listen."

When they arrived, they were cornered by Aang, Katara and Toph.

"You're back!" Aang cheered. "Sokka, say something funny!"

"Funny, like how?" He asked back, and then the Air Nomad and his sister started laughing.

"Was our absence that bad, Toph?" Yue asked the Earthbender.

"I wouldn't know," she responded, not wanting to admit it, but she was happy they were back. "I was never paying attention."

"Okay. Is it possible you guys can help us with something?"

When they got their approval of assistance, they went straight to the crater where the meteorite had impacted, cool to the touch and as dark as coal.

"What could you possibly want with that?" Zuko asked Yue.

"Wait and see," she responded.

-x-

Azula couldn't have been more upset than ever before. Her father, once he'd become aware of how much time she spent in her Firebending drills, had given her a task that even her drill instructors were positive of not being a task: _"Take a few days off at Ember Island to clear your head,"_ Ozai had told her, and now she was in her room packing for a few days.

"Urgh!" She hissed, her scar (which had healed up some more, but leaving a thin line where the boomerang struck) stinging whenever she thought of the Water Tribe boy that struck her down. _That peasant. That filthy, no good peasant!_

The only good thing about taking a break from her drills was that she was allowed to bring Mai and Ty Lee with her. It was about the only good thing for her.

-x-

Pushing the meteorite up the walkway to Piandao's, Sokka, Yue, Aang, Katara, Zuko, Jet and the others were hard at work. Even Toph used her Earthbending to make it look convincing that they could actually push the large rock up the path, since it was revealed that, even with Pipsqueak's strength, the meteorite was as heavy as it was massive.

"Who are they?" Piandao, once they made it to his front gate, asked the couple as he noticed the large gathering of faces.

"Oh? These are our friends, just some fellow, Fire Nation folks," said Sokka, whilst Zuko made sure that the scarred side of his face was hidden from sight.

"Is it possible to make swords out of a meteorite, Master Piandao?" Yue asked him, presenting the large rock to the sword master.

"We'll make a pair of swords unlike any others in the world," he told her.

They took it to the forge where they got to work; Sokka fragmenting the large rock into smaller pieces with a large hammer and chisel while Yue, in an attempt to build up her upper muscle strength, was shoveling coal into the forge to intensify the flames needed to liquefy the ore. Then, using a smaller hammer and chisel, Sokka made those pieces smaller and easier to place inside the two wooden buckets that would be going into the forge.

Aang and Zuko opted to help the two, but Yue kindly turned them down; this was part of their training to forge their own swords, and it was like bending, which was true. Everything they did was comparable to controlling the elements: You had to practice daily and develop the skills necessary to build up your talents. It didn't always come naturally to those that had it.

Zuko believed them, since it took him a long time to develop his skills as both a Firebender and a swordsman; for Aang, it was Earthbending, since it was his natural opposite element.

As night set upon them, Yue had finished her turn in keeping the forge's flames hot with new coal, allowing her some time to rest up while Sokka watched said forge. As he watched her, he'd never seen her so serious about wanting to know how to defend herself after she had gotten hurt; it was impressive to him that she was getting better with the skills she'd been learning from the others: Aang teaching her how to avoid an opponent's blows by getting behind them, Katara instructing her with the Waterbending discipline of redirecting a person's moves back at them, Toph demonstrating to her how to endure hits while waiting for the opportunity to strike back, and Zuko…well, he was showing her how to be offensive in her blows and kicks, which was a common tactic in Firebending. If he didn't know any better, he could almost believe that Yue was trying to a non-bender equal to the Avatar, learning these self-defensive techniques. But it wasn't Sokka's place to jump to conclusions on what she was trying to become; the Water Tribe boy just wanted her to be by his side and alive to see the war end and balance restored to the Four Nations.

He then saw that a couple of minutes to a whole hour had passed and it was his turn to restock the forge with coal to keep the fire going. Completely unaware and distracted by the forge, neither knew that Piandao was watching. The sword master had never seen a better pair of students so serious about wanting to be instructed in the way of the sword.

As night became day, the ore had become completely liquidated and ready to be molded into the blades they were to become. Sokka and Yue carefully picked up the buckets and deposited the ore into the blade molds shaped in the sword that their instructor used and then had to wait for the liquid metal to cool down some before continuing the process of molding said metal into the blades, which was over an hour later.

BANG! Sokka hammered the hammer on one of the swords against a large piece of stone, carefully making sure that it was hardened properly. So, too, was Yue making sure that hers was hardening properly before they allowed Piandao to examine them.

The next day, within the sword master's castle, accompanied by their friends, Sokka and Yue were presented with their swords by Piandao, who explained that they showed something totally different than what other swordsmen displayed: While Yue demonstrated some of the traits necessary for a determined swordsman, such as the unwillingness to give up and try hard, both Sokka and she demonstrated a degree of creativity, versatility and intelligence (the first and last degrees being more on Sokka's part than Yue's, who was the one that suggested the use of ore from the meteorite).

"…These are the traits that define a great swordsman," he told them, "and they are what define you."

Unsheathing their blades, the young pair marveled at the glistening beauty of the black steel. But as Sokka felt the need to say something good in response to this, Yue started feeling shame…in lying to a great swordsman.

"I'm sorry, Master Piandao," she uttered, "but you're wrong. I'm not who you think I am. I'm not a Fire Nation colonist, I'm from the Northern Water Tribe."

Sokka and the others gawked from the shock that Yue had exposed herself (although she hadn't revealed her name, not that it mattered if Piandao knew she was of Water Tribe descent).

"I lied to you in order to learn swordsmanship so that I could help stop the war that's been raging for one-hundred years. I apologize." She confessed to nearly everything.

"I apologize, as well," Piandao responded, and then unsheathed his sword to strike her.

SLASH! Yue blocked with her sword, putting her arms' muscles to work in holding her weapon.

Sokka unsheathed his sword and made an attempt to help Yue, but the princess held out a hand in the gesture meant to halt him.

"This is my fight…by myself," she told him.

-x-

The storm and burning thunder were approaching. Iroh, in several days' time, had reconditioned his body back to the way it had been when he was in his prime and his Firebending at its most powerful. Soon, when the quietness had passed, freedom would be his to reclaim.

_The war must end,_ he thought, hiding the results of his intense workout by wearing the extra cloth of his sheets to give off the illusion that he was still lazy in appearance and not as tough as he was in the past when he was a general.

The door to his cell opened and the warden in charge of him came in, carrying a tray of food.

"You…you used to be the pride of the Fire Nation. Our top general, the Dragon of the West. Now look at you. Look at what you've become." He told Iroh, and then saw him rise from his sitting position.

The Dragon of the West's time to ride the burning thunder had come at last.

-x-

Despite Sokka's plea of letting him fight Piandao for her, Yue wanted to face the great sword master herself; it was her way of earning the rights to the sword she was given.

Out on the training grounds, Piandao faced her; the right to go free with all that they had learned. He made the first move, lunging for the princess, but Yue blocked by using her sword to deflect all four of his stabbing blows before returning four of her own blows, which he dodged. The sword master then sidestepped Yue and nearly hit her in the back with the butt of his sword's hilt, but the princess ducked and somersaulted away toward one of the railings of a small bridge over a pond, using it to halt another strike from Piandao as she climbed atop the other rail's post.

"Remarkable, Zutara," Piandao praised her. "Using your superior agility against one who is older and more experienced than you. Smart."

He then charged at her, but Yue leaps off the rail and heads over toward some stone steps of a stairway. The princess ducks to avoid a sword thrust as the blade impales the side of the stairway walls, allowing for Yue to press back against the wall and propel herself forward at Piandao, her sword extended. The sword master evaded her attack and removed his sword from the stone, just as Yue climbed to the top of the steps.

"Clever use of your terrain, fighting from the high ground," he praised her again, and she smiled.

But the smile was short-lived as he tried to assault her again with his sword. Yue jumped up to avoid the strike and landed atop the blade, her weight keeping it down. But not for long, as Piandao pushed the sword upwards, knocking her off and onto her back.

"Oh…" Sokka worried over her, even when he praised her for surviving the fight for this long.

Piandao thrust his sword at Yue's head, but the princess evaded and fled into the bamboo thicket whilst the blade cut down a bamboo tree. She slit through several tree stalks as she turned left and right, looking behind to see Piandao advancing after her, confidently cutting the falling bamboo stalks to clear his path. The princess turns and grabs a stalk, bending it down as she prepared to strike her teacher with it. It wasn't her ideal choice, but with her teacher in the art of swordsmanship after her with a vengeance, what choice did she have at the moment? She needed to help end the war, and to do that, she needed to defeat him.

_I hope that he may forgive me,_ she thought, seeing Piandao manifest from the shadows beyond her, and released the bamboo like a whip made of flexible wood at him.

SLICE! Piandao cut through the stalk before it could even hit him! This forced Yue to run and grab another stalk and try again, only to get the same reaction. It was useless to try such a futile method that could've worked as a game against this master.

"Yes!" He continued to praise her. "Manipulate your surroundings. Make them fight for you!"

_You have got to be kidding!_ She shuddered, running out of the thicket and heading back to the practice ring, where her sword had gotten lodged into the ground; this was due to her not holding it upright.

Her action time was slower than Piandao's, who'd somehow gotten ahead of her onto the ring. The sword master approached her, swung his sword at her head, but she ducked. He tried for her legs, and she jumped, doing a back-flip, her first, successful one since she started learning how to defend herself. Then, running under him through an opening in his legs, she reached for her sword, which had been stuck in the ground, and ripped it out, releasing a short burst of dirt, which got Piandao in his face, blinding him.

"You're very resourceful," he told her, trying to blink out the dirt in his eyes, but he still couldn't see.

When Yue saw him move his head left toward where she stood, she realized that he was listening for sounds; where one sense failed, compensate with the others. She slowly and quietly walked away from the ring, hoping that she could avoid resuming the confrontation. There was no way she could beat this wise man of the sword. Her best hope was to get away with her life.

SNAP! She had stepped on a lone twig that was near her, and then saw Piandao turning his head her way. She'd been caught.

"Uh-oh!" She gasped, raising her sword up to black his blows at her, but in the end, her arms still showed room for strength improvement; Piandao had forced the sword out of her grip, making it swing in the air several times before hitting the ground as she fell to her bottom. "Aaah!"

Sokka and the others couldn't stand back and watch any longer, jumping over the railings and entering the ring, determined to save Yue. But Piandao halted their actions as he pulled his sword away from the princess, chuckling softly.

"Well-done, Zutara," he said, "or rather…Princess Yue of the Northern Water Tribe?"

Yue got up to her feet again and had a look of confusion on her face.

As Fat brought Piandao his sword's scabbard and a damp cloth, the sword master sheathed his blade.

"You're improving as a warrior, but I believe I'm a little too old to be fighting friends of the Avatar and the Avatar himself." He told her some more, washing the dirt off his eyes.

"But…how'd you know?" Yue asked, needing confirmation.

"I've been around a long while, so I pick up things. Of course, I knew from the very beginning that you and Sokka were from the Water Tribes. No one from the Fire Nation has blue eyes…or has a name like Sokka. You may want to try a different Fire Nation alias. Why not Takeru? There's a hundred of those bearing that name." He revealed to her.

"But why would you choose to train someone from the Water Tribes?" Zuko asked him, making no effort to hide his identity now, not after this man revealed to knowing who they were.

"Oh, the way of the sword doesn't belong to any one nation," answered the sword master. "Knowledge of the arts belongs to everyone."

Fat approached Yue's sword and carefully pulled it out of the ground, handing it to Piandao, who, in turn, handed it to Yue.

"You and Sokka must continue your training on your own now, Yue, but if you stay on this path, you'll, eventually, become a better master that I am," he told the princess, who accepted her sword back.

Sokka, Piandao and she bowed to each other, happy that what they thought was going to happen was nothing more than a realistic demonstration of all that they had learned from the master.

-x-

Fire Lord Ozai was not happy. It wasn't any news about the Avatar or how his son proved himself to be not only a failure but a grand traitor by siding with him and his supporters, but by what a traumatized prison guard had revealed to him: Iroh, the Dragon of the West, former general of the Fire Nation armies and a Firebending Master, had escaped from prison. _"He's gone. He busted himself out. I… I've never seen anything like it! He was like a one-man army,"_ the warden, Poon, had told him, still shaken from his attempts to try and stop Iroh from escaping. Ozai now needed to focus his time on preparing for complete control of the Earth Kingdom, eliminating the Avatar AND finding his elder brother and eliminating him.

He'd need Azula's help, but he sent her away on vacation at Ember Island. He'd obtain her help when she came back and was more stable. If Azula was ever to succeed him, she needed to be at her best, regardless of her…facial injuries. Her blue flames made her almost as strong as he was…and she only ever got stronger.

_She may have what it takes to defeat the Avatar,_ he thought, pondering on his next scheduled meeting with the other generals of the Fire Nation.

-x-

"…It's a pair of Pai Sho tiles," said Sokka, who, along with Yue, was given said tiles by Fat, who had to run after them as they were too far away from Piandao's home. "They're the same tile."

"The white lotus," added Aang.

"What do they mean?" Katara and Jet wondered.

Zuko, who had a guess on what they meant, decided to keep quiet about it, but he would explain what he knew to them in due time. He'd noticed the white lotus symbol on Piandao's gates around the Fire Nation insignia, almost hidden and in plain sight at the same time.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Yue gasped, digging into one of her pockets and pulling out a large piece of stone. "Toph, Sokka and I saved this piece of the meteorite for you while making our swords. He figured you'd like it since you've never tried to bend space rock before."

"Wow! Thanks. Check this out!" Toph praised, trying out her bending on the stone, shifting it into a wide variety of shapes: A block, star, swirl, hand and a splatter.

"Wait, how can it be rock?" Katara asked as they resumed walking away from Piandao's home. "I mean, if it's from space, then it can't be rock."

"It has some similarities to rock, as Toph can bend it, so it must be rock," said Yue, answering her.

"Must everything be confusing to you, sis?" Sokka wondered.

"And I can't believe I missed you," muttered Katara. "And Yue…you defended yourself against Piandao quite well. Your skills are improving."

"Thank you," Yue praised her back. "Where to now?"

"The next island we fly to," said Aang. "It should be about a night's journey from here."

"Then, let's get soaring."

A/N: Here it is! The new chapter! I'm sorry it took so long. So many things have been getting in my way: Work, family, motivation and the like. I hope the next one will be ready in due time. And I just found out that the new _Witchblade_ comic is out, so I must obtain it. The next chapter will feature the dreaded Combustion Man. Ciao!


	12. The Princess, the Princess, & the Beach

Creation began on 02-11-11

Creation ended on 02-18-11

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess, the Princess, and the Beach

A/N: Well, you can all guess who the other "princess" is due to Yue being the first one seen. Water outs fire! Let's read this!

_I almost feel at ease here,_ thought Azula, laying on the beach of Ember Island, relaxing in the sun. _Everything's perfect, all is quiet…and there's not a single enemy in sight._

The Crown Princess of the Fire Nation was actually having a nice time on Ember Island; the scar had receded even more until you could barely notice it on her face. Being told by Lo and Li (she never could tell which one was which due to them being twins) that the island had a way of smoothening the edges of even the most ragged stone edges. And being given a few days off by her father due to the intense Firebending practices that made her a powerful bender was all the more better. This was a good period of which she could just let go of her duties as the next leader of the Fire Nation and let the world pass her by as she relaxed.

_Not even the peasant…who will be dealt with,_ she thought, though not really concerned about the Water Tribe boy.

-x-

"Aang, I get that swimming is fun and all," went Toph, as the whole group was relaxing in a large crater filled with water, "but should you and Yue really be exposing yourselves like this? I mean, cover up!"

Yue, lazily floating about in the water in her undergarments, looked at Toph with a confused expression and said, "What do you mean, Toph? We're both wearing swimwear."

"I know… It's actually your tattoos and chest injury that I'm worried about," Toph explained, although it still confused Yue; the Earthbender couldn't really see Aang's tattoos and as for her own chest injury, she had undergone another healing session with Katara before she got in the water. "What if someone sees you?"

"There are walls all around us," uttered Zuko, doing hard labor with Pipsqueak and Jet, whom made it a priority to build up their muscle strength; fun and games could wait until later. "Plus, there isn't a person for miles on this side of the island."

As Yue drifted back to shore, Sokka was busy practicing his swordsmanship; it had been decided by them that when one had time for play, the other would have time for work. Yue had practiced her swordsmanship first, allowing Sokka some much-needed playtime in the water, and now they had switched positions with Sokka practicing and her playing. A warm breeze blew past her as she made contact with the ground, and she sighed peacefully. These weren't just short periods of harmony within the troubles of a war that had spanned over one-hundred years, these were periods of rejuvenation. Yue had felt rejuvenated when she first met Sokka and decided to join the group in their goal to end the war against the Fire Nation, got hurt badly in the Earth Kingdom capital, and was rejuvenated again when they came to the Fire Nation and was now rejuvenating once more.

She noticed Appa, who, like Momo, was just sleeping near the campsite whilst The Duke and Smellerbee made sandcastles and Longshot simply sat around, watching them. It seemed that everybody was relaxing in their own, unique way.

-x-

The very idea of taking a vacation wasn't as peaceful to Mai, who wasn't used to doing nice things due to her childhood of listening to her parents. The warm breeze, the shining sunlight, they couldn't make her forget about her curiosity of why Zuko had turned away from the Fire Nation and joined up with the Avatar. Maybe even a part of her wished that Zuko was here with her, sitting next to her on the beach, just being beside her. She looked over toward where Azula was, looking like she no longer had a single care left as she relaxed, and then over towards Ty Lee, who seemed to have acquired a group of men doing different things for her.

_Well, they seem happy,_ she thought, keeping her head under her umbrella to avoid the sunlight.

Mai secretly wondered how much longer it would be until she saw Zuko again and was able to obtain the answers to her questions of why the banished prince did what he did to the Fire Nation…and her.

-x-

The cool, night air did little to hinder Azula later in the day after the sun went down. Unable to find satisfaction at some guy's house where she and the girls had been invited to a party, she left early to a place she hadn't been to for years before her brother was banished: Her family's summer house. They hadn't been to the large place in a long time; she was probably just four years old or so when they stopped coming to Ember Island. So, out of some mild curiosity, she was wondering what the place looked like after many years of not being in use.

It had an air of majestic value, since it belonged to the Fire Nation Royal Family, but a collection of dust since it hadn't been tended to for years. She tried to get inside, but the doors was locked, so she kicked them opened with one good jump-kick (think of Trinity's jump-kick from _The Matrix_), allowing her an undeniable entry. The interior was covered in several layers of dust and cobwebs, giving the aura of abandonment not far from feeling. She examined several common items around the living room, like the vases and counters, and then went upstairs to explore what was left there.

_Hmm,_ she hummed, the first thing she saw was a large painting of her family…before things had changed for them.

Stepping up closer to the painting, Azula got a better perception of the detailed individuals that posed for it the day it was made. She looked at Zuko, whose thoughts at that time were a grand mystery to her, not as much as they weren't to her tonight, then to her mother, whom she couldn't relate to at all. Ursa, whom, at the time, was a princess of the Fire Nation by means of her marriage to Ozai, had sometimes thought of her daughter as a monster, which was very true, and it hurt Azula at the time before she went missing. Then, she looked to her father, who she could relate in terms of Firebending prowess and the desire for perfection; Ozai even called her a Firebending prodigy and that she was born lucky, which was the exact opposite of her brother, who was lucky to be born.

_Those days were so cloudy,_ she thought, placing her left palm on the painting…and reducing it to ash. _Not anymore._

-x-

Team Avatar, or the Gaang, as Yue had often joked because it, like the Boomerang Squad, had Aang's name in it (but was actually a combination of Aang Gang), was sound asleep that night after their fun time and training. Suddenly, Toph, due to her close connection to the ground, got up and woke the others.

"Guys," she started as they were awakening, "I might be crazy for saying this, but it feels like a metal man is coming over here."

"Huh? What?" Yue asked her. "A metal man?"

"Hey, who's that up there?" The Duke asked them, pointing up toward the crater, right to a large man that seemed to have a glove that shined the moonlight on them.

"What the…" Zuko went, having thought the stories about this guy were just stories, but his presence enough was starting to make him reconsider that they were as real as he was.

The man looked down at each of them, taking in their faces, but remembering Azula's orders on who her targets were. He saw Zuko and Aang, along with Yue, who was picking up her sword, but they were a secondary concern…with Sokka, who was also picking up his sword, the primary target. By shining the reflecting moonlight on the boy's face, he got a better look at him before inhaling and unleashing a beam of energy that exploded! It caused some damage to the sides of the crater and sent some of the kids flying backwards onto Appa.

"Aaaahh!" They cried out, and Toph got onto her feet and bended a shattering column of stones toward the guy to defend them.

BLAST! The man fired another beam of energy from his third eye and destroyed the wall of rocks, seeing a girl that wasn't the Tribal Princess bending a large stream of water toward him. He fired again and reduced the attack to steam.

"Rrrrruagh!" Appa roared, as if trying to frighten the man away, or was himself frightened by the man's abilities, which they all were starting to suspect was related to Firebending.

As Momo climbed up Yue's shoulders, the Gaang hid behind Appa and a wall of stone that Toph built, trying to shield themselves from the man's attacks.

"This is insane!" Sokka heard Jet say. "How do we fight somebody that blows things up with just his head, anyway?"

"We can't. Not right now," answered Aang. "All we can do now is try to get away."

BLAST! The man fired and caused another explosion, one that was closer to where they hid.

Aang tried to distract him by fleeing away from the others, but found, to his grand disbelief, the man hadn't left the crater; the Avatar wasn't even sure what this guy was after or who he wanted.

Sokka, seeing that guy hadn't stopped causing explosions in the crater, picked up an idea and ran out of the crater; this was to see who this man was after. It answered his curiosity when another explosion came from behind him: The attacker was after him!

Aang saw this and knew he had to help Sokka, whose swordsmanship wouldn't help him against an enemy that had an ace against him. He ran toward the Water Tribe boy on his Air Scooter and picked him up, providing him with a speedy transportation away from the guy that chased after them.

BLAST! Another explosion came as the two ran into this forest of stone columns. The attacker was unwilling to give up. BLAST! He fired again and caused at least two columns to collapse onto the ground, creating a smokescreen.

Using the smokescreen to his advantage, Aang hid Sokka under a pile of rubble and went to fend off the attacker that seemed to have a probable hit list with the Water Tribe boy at the top of it. In the meantime, everyone else had gathered everything from the crater and took off on Appa into the air. Aang, hiding behind one other column, waited for the assailant to show up and bended the column toward him. BLAST! The guy reduced it to rubble and fired again at Aang; it was now a priority to remove secondary concerns so that the primary target was eliminated without distractions. Aang created a wall of air to shield himself from the direct blast and was sent up in the air above. Aiming toward the pillars nearest where he hid Sokka, Aang punched though one and created another smokescreen; this allowed him to collect Sokka and hide in the stones to avoid detection.

The assailant showed up at where Aang should've crash-landed, but didn't see him around. When he passed the pile of rubber that the Avatar and Water Tribe boy hid in, said Avatar burst free from them with Sokka in tow and leapt into the air. The assailant tried to create another explosion to catch them both, but they were too far out of his range to cause any degree of harm.

Appa flew under them and they fell onto the saddle where everyone else was secured. Yue and Katara hugged Sokka and Aang, respectively.

"Well, that was random," said Smellerbee to them.

"I don't think so," said Zuko. "I heard stories about this guy before I was banished. He's a Firebender that's good at what he does…and is even better at keeping secrets about them. He achieved some notoriety for a series of Agni Kai matches that ended as quick as they started. When that ended, he became a hired worker, willing to an odd job if the price was good enough."

"And I guessing somebody paid him a good sum to get rid of us?" Jet asked him.

"More like me," Sokka uttered. "He didn't stop firing on the crater until after I ran out of it. That guy was after me."

As Appa flew away from the island they were on and into the night, the Gaang slept as peacefully as they could, trying to forget about the fact that a Firebender that could trigger explosions with a third eye on his forehead was after at least one of them. But Sokka couldn't shake off the reasons why a Firebender of this sort was after him. There could've been many reasons, many potential possibilities, each one more terrifying than the previous one. And the thinking wasn't helping him sleep at all.

Yue took notice of this, somehow able to tell when Sokka wasn't asleep, and got up to speak with him.

"Thinking about that guy isn't going to help you rest, you know," she told him. "Whatever the reason, we'll figure it out as we make our way toward the Fire Nation Capital where the Fire Lord dwells."

"I know. There was just one other possibility as to why he was after me back there: Azula." He told her, and she recalled the fact that, mere moments after she was shot down by the Fire Nation princess' lightning assault, her boyfriend used his boomerang to hit her in the face; she assumed it was a condition that wasn't as unheard of as bender envy: Temporary insanity.

"You know I won't let that guy get you," she told him, placing her hands on his face. "There are many things that we must do after the war ends."

He nodded and then lied his head down. Yue laid next to him and watched him sleep, falling to sleep later herself.

-x-

After burning several other things in the beach house, Azula sat on the beach by a blue fire; it was like this because she focused solely on the flames. It felt good to burn things around her; it made her feel so alive when many things that weren't perfect were reduced to ashes. She felt a bit more better than she was before she journeyed to the Earth Kingdom to find her brother and uncle to bring them back as prisoners, only to extend her stay because the Fire Nation needed the Avatar dealt with. Now that she was home, and the summer was approaching with each day, she would have a great advantage in the war before the comet arrived.

It was common knowledge that during the summer, Firebenders were stronger due to the longer days and being near strong sources of heat, like the sun itself, the greatest source of Firebending energy in history. But not as close to the planet as the comet would be when it arrived. Her father told her that when Sozin's Comet would arrive, it would endow all Firebenders with the force of one-hundred suns, although that might've been a believable way of saying that all Firebenders would be stronger than they normally were. She couldn't wait to see the comet and obtain greater power…and use it to burn away the rest of the imperfect world.

_Everything burns,_ she thought, seeing a vision of Ursa in the blue flames, and watching her burn away with the world, as well. _Everything._

A/N: Well, here it is. I apologize if it's short and you didn't get much satisfaction from it, but I hope to make up for it with the next chapter. I'll try to have Zuko explain more about Combustion Man as the other benders train Aang, while Sokka and Yue continue to train with their swords. If many of you think Azula's showing insanity in a calm and collected way, I believe you to be right. I think I'll have the song _Everything Burns_ from the movie _Fantastic Four_. It might fit with her current state of mind.


	13. The Princess and the Irresponsible Times

Creation began on 02-19-11

Creation ended on 05-25-11

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Irresponsible Times

A/N: Yue gets to experience several moments of how fun doing wrong things can be sometimes, with Katara, like always, acting as a voice of reason or conscious.

"…So, technically, this guy is a Firebender, but he doesn't use any of the regular forms," said Sokka to Zuko, some four days after Team Avatar (or the Gaang) had arrived to the deserted island that served as the home of Avatar Roku for Aang to learn more about how the war began (and to their great surprise of the history that Aang revealed to them, Roku and Fire Lord Sozin, who at the earliest time was known as Prince Sozin, were once best friends) and finding the best methods of how to end it.

"Yes," Zuko repeated, relaying everything he knew about the Firebender that could cause explosions. "Those that knew of his background say that he discovered this ability of his when he was younger; nobody knows how old he was when this ability was discovered. But since he didn't know much of control at the time, he…accidentally caused the loss of his right arm and leg and got those metallic replacements for them."

"That probably explains why Toph felt he was like a metal man," went Jet, who, along with the others, was also listening to the given details. "Those limbs of his must be made of extremely dense metal."

"Well, that certainly gives us an edge at being warned of his presence with Toph knowing he's nearby," said Yue, who then added Aang, since he was learning Toph's Earthbending skill that she learned from the Badger Moles. "…And if he only knows how to cause explosions, he leaves himself vulnerable to those that can get close enough to hurt him."

"Not many people could ever get close enough when exposed," Zuko told her. "In every Agni Kai match he participated in, his opponents could only try and protect themselves from his continuous assaults; it was like they weren't dealing with a Firebender…but a force of nature. Before he entered the first one that he won, he got his third eye tattooed to mark where he released his explosions."

"Wait a minute, you said that his ability to cause explosions also relies on his breath control, like all forms of Firebending?" Katara asked him. "And that he must always be standing?"

"So far. He's never been seen causing explosions while sitting or laying down. Besides breath control, Firebending also relies on Chi, like all other forms of bending."

"Oh, I wish we could just block his Chi, then he couldn't get us," said The Duke, "and what do we call him, anyway?"

"Sorry. I don't know his name," Zuko informed; this was the only piece of information that he lacked. "And he doesn't talk."

"You mean, he can't talk?" Yue asked him.

"No. He just doesn't speak much. Silent to the point where people think he's mute."

Soon enough, all eyes were on Longshot, who embodied a similar trait, for he was quiet to the point of mute since he never spoke as much as they did.

"Not that not speaking is a bad thing," Toph uttered. "It's not so different from my Earthbending: Waiting and listening before striking."

Sometime after the discovery of the history of the explosions-capable Firebender, the group picked up their individual training sessions for the upcoming invasion plan. Aang was studying more Earthbending skills with Toph without the use of his eyes, with Katara adding Waterbending to intensify the danger; Jet was practicing more with his hook swords against Zuko's broadswords (this was due to the possibility that Zuko's Firebending was now extremely weak to the point of gone, and none of them could understand why yet), and Sokka and Yue were also practicing their swordsmanship against each other, after doing a little engraving on their respective swords: Yue engraved 'Lady' on hers while Sokka engraved 'Gentleman' on his, thus marking them as a lady and a gentleman on the battlefield in the future. The young Water Tribe couple were getting better the more they practiced, though neither was willing to test their skills against Jet or Zuko, who picked up their skills without masters of the art much faster than they had with one.

Aang, improving his Earthbending by using Toph's ability to see through the ground, was dodging and evading every rock and whip of water thrown at him.

"Nice work, Twinkle Toes," said Toph to him. "You visualize…and then attack!"

She threw another rock at him and missed, instead hitting Katara and knocking her into a pit of mud.

"Hey!" She yelled. "Maybe Toph should take her own advice."

"What's the matter? Can't handle some mud, Madam Fussy Britches?" Toph taunted her, only to receive a wall of water and dirt cover her in mud.

"I'm sorry, did I splash you, mud slug?" Katara teased her.

Yue and Sokka then noticed that the masters of Water and Earth were, instead of training the Avatar, were trying to fight each other, with the Airbending Master himself watching from underneath his headband. They were confused as to what was going on here.

When the girls were on their backs and about to rise to go at it again, Yue stopped them with, "I thought you two were supposed to be training Aang, not fighting each other."

Salvaging the little dignity she had left for the day, Katara uttered, "Very well, pupil. I believe that's enough training for today."

Toph then bended the mud off herself, save for some that was on her back under her shirt.

"While Katara cleans up, let's go have some fun!" Toph told the others.

"I'm all for it," Yue said and followed the Earthbender.

Sokka, Aang, Jet and The Duke followed them, leaving Zuko, Smellerbee, Longshot and Pipsqueak to help Katara mind the fort. They walked down to the town that Zuko informed them of was called Fire Fountain City due to the large statue of Fire Lord Ozai built in the center. Along the way to wherever they were heading, they noticed some Messenger Hawks flying around a store.

"Look at all of those Messenger Hawks," said Sokka. "I've been thinking of getting one. That way, I could send people messages from a distance."

"I gotta say," went Toph, "I wouldn't mind the idea of not talking to you."

"Heh-heh-heh!" Yue cracked up, but when she looked at the last bit of money they had left from the restocking of food supplies from the other islands, she sighed. "We only have two silver pieces left, so what should we get?"

Suddenly, Toph went, "We can get more money."

"Huh?" Sokka and Aang stuttered.

"Right there," she pointed over down toward some people on a lower street.

"It looks like something of interest," Yue added in, interested in seeing.

It turned out that there was a commotion because of a man moving cups around so fast that it seemed he was skilled at it. People were dealing money to get more money, but they were losing to the guy.

"This is where you're seeing people are at a disadvantage," Toph explained to them. "They always guess wrong because the dealer moves the rock at the last second. But I can feel where the rock is because of Earthbending."

Soon enough, the dealer spotted Toph and uttered, "You there. Care to play a friendly game?"

Toph then responded, "I'm blind, sir. How could I possibly play?"

"Oh, you don't have to see to be lucky," the dealer told her, and she navigated her hands toward the table and laid down one of the remaining two silver pieces.

The dealer then moved the cups around, shifting the stone in order to better Toph's chances of losing, but what he didn't know was that Toph was a girl that couldn't be fooled. When he stopped, the blind Earthbender guessed correctly at which cup held the stone.

"Flame-yo, Toph," Aang praised her as the dealer tossed her some silver pieces to add on to the one she nearly lost.

"Fancy guessing," the dealer praised her. "You're good at this. But…would you like to make the game a little more interesting?"

"Interesting? How?" Toph asked him.

"Let's say you toss in one of your friends' fine sword and I'll put up twenty silver pieces, and that's more interesting." The dealer tried, but that had Yue worried.

Toph then grabbed Sokka's sword and said, "I'll do it for forty pieces."

_Oh, no!_ Yue thought. _Not Sokka's sword. He needs it for the upcoming invasion. We won't be a lady and a gentleman on the battlefield._

The dealer then shuffled the cups even faster than before, moving the stone underneath. Toph could feel the vibrations from both stone and cups, and when the dealer made his move to remove the stone from the game, the Earthbender made a small gesture with her right hand to keep the stone in the game. She then pointed to the cup on the left side of the table.

"Sorry, miss, but (he lifted up the cup, and, to his horror, found the stone was still there)… Huh?!"

"I won!" Toph cheered, just as Yue quickly took back Sokka's sword.

-x-

While Katara wasn't as vindictive against Zuko like she was a little bit during the months after they all discovered Aang had returned from the one-hundred years of being frozen in an iceberg, she worried over the loss of his Firebending; it had been decided on that he'd be the one to teach Aang, even though he wasn't a master in the art, but gained the upper hand in battling other experienced benders and often defeating them. Zuko had mentioned that sometime after Aang's return, he fought Zhao to an Agni Kai and defeated him. Not many benders could ever defeat a master without more practice or experience…or unless the master lacked many qualities that were needed to be the best of their practice.

"Any luck, Zuko?" She asked him, seeing him trying to Firebend on the side of the cliff they were camped on.

"No, nothing," he answered, unable to even make fire shoot out of his hands. "I don't understand why this is happening."

Before she could say something of encouragement toward him, a cry of "We're back!" caught their attentions and they turned to see Aang, Toph, Yue, Sokka, Jet and The Duke returning, carrying with them a lot of provisions. Katara and Zuko, who knew that they all only had two silver pieces to their group knew there was no way that they could've gotten all of that with just minute funds.

"Whoa! Where'd y'all get the funds to buy all of that?" Zuko asked them, just as Sokka placed one of the ceramic containers of rice in his hands.

"Toph won us money," Yue expressed, setting down some bags full of vegetables and fruits. "We were walking down this street and we met this guy that challenged her to a game where he moved around these cups real fast and hid a stone under one of them."

"She used Earthbending to win the game of chance. A total original." Sokka praised.

"Oh…so, she cheated," Katara uttered, not so pleased with hearing this.

"Hey, I only cheated 'cause he cheated. I cheated a cheater. What's wrong with that?" Toph asked her.

"I'm just saying that this isn't something we should make a habit of doing," she explained.

"Why? Because it's fun…and you hate fun?" Toph asked again.

"What?! I don't hate fun!" Katara expressed, and then placed Momo on her head. "See? Fun."

Yue gave a small chuckle; Katara was fun when she wasn't serious…and when she tried to be fun when she was serious, the results weren't very good.

Aang then made a promise to her, on his position as the Avatar, that they wouldn't make a habit of doing scams on others.

-x-

_Avatar promises don't really have much value in Aang's case, being young, still,_ Yue thought, helping Sokka and Aang throw dice across the ground, using Toph's Earthbending to rig the game and scam people. _This is actually very fun. The thrills, the excitement. I can see why Toph enjoys it._

Then, the scamming moved up from the dice rolls to manipulating the outcome of a test of strength game, which Toph won due to Earthbending. Sokka, about three days later, had worked out a plan with Yue to con some wealthy Fire Nation man into extortion after pretending that both she and Toph were injured by his carriage, getting a few sacks of gold pieces; the guy had thought that Sokka was an authority figure due to his fake moustache and beard. They were now rolling in the dough that they had obtained from the scams, which, while putting an end to their financial problems, made Katara all the more serious; even when they were in a war they were trying to end, there was time for fun, but the Waterbending Master was one of the few that stayed serious about wanting the war to stop.

"Uh, guys, I think these scams have gone too far," she told them about three days later, while Yue was dividing her share of the bronze, silver and gold pieces in separate pouches that were also being dividing into funds for emergencies and funds for fun. "If we keep doing them, something bad is going to happen."

"Oh, could you stop being such a sourpuss and lighten up for once?" Toph asked, unaffected by the Waterbender's concerns, and to prove so, she tossed her a silver piece.

Katara caught it and responded with, "What, and act like you? Like some wild child?"

"Yeah, and then you'll see how great we got it. We're traveling around the world, making easy money, having fun half the time, and with no parents telling us with to do."

Yue had to agree with Toph on that, to a degree; with no parents around, that is. But then she realized something that may have been accurate: Toph's behavior has been very out of line much of the time since she left home, and maybe this was her way of expressing her freedom of being away from her parents because of their concern for her.

_But it wasn't like they were only scared for her,_ she thought, remembering the expression on her father's face. _They were probably even afraid of her a little because of her bending abilities._

"Ah, I see," went Katara, coming to a similar conclusion as the Tribal Princess. "You're acting this way because your parents aren't around."

"Whatever," Toph uttered, uncaring.

As Yue continued to divide her share of the funds, she listened in on how Katara was saying to Toph on how her parents were controlling her and how her behavior was her way of expressing how she's glad to be far away from them, though Toph was less than happy to hear her assume this and walked away from her.

"We already have some third-eyed Firebender after us," said Jet, helping himself to an apple.

"Speaking of the third-eyed Firebender," went Sokka, "The Duke and I came up with a possible alias for him so we can identify him."

"We're thinking of calling him 'Boom-Boom Man'," The Duke revealed.

"I don't know, Sokka," said Aang to them. "You might wanna try something shorter."

When Yue finished her dividing of funds between emergencies and fun, she took some of her fun money and headed off to town.

"See ya later," she told them, but that prompted Sokka to come with her, taking some of his own share of the loot with him.

-x-

Leaving a weapons shop, Yue had just purchased a large shield; since she was being trained in the use of a sword, a defensive weapon would be necessary for protection. As she walked down the street to where she'd last seen Sokka, she past a sign with a picture of a person that seemed vaguely familiar to her. She stopped and went back to look at it. It was a wanted poster with a crude description…of Toph…with an alias that kind of matched up to her current status with her dissociation with her parents.

"Uh-oh," she gasped, removing the poster from the wall with the other posters. "This isn't good."

"Hey, Yue," she heard Sokka calling her, showing up by her side with a Messenger Hawk on his right shoulder. "I'd like you to meet Hawky."

"Sokka, who does this look like to you?" Yue asked him, showing the poster.

"That looks like… Uh-oh. This is bad."

They returned to the campsite and found Toph counting her share of the funds they scammed from the villagers at the Fire Fountain City.

"Toph, Yue and I found something that you really need to look at," Sokka told her, presenting the poster to the girl.

"Well, it sounds like a sheet of paper, but you're probably referring to what's on the sheet of paper," Toph responded, reminding Sokka that she was blind.

"Oops," he sighed.

"It's a wanted poster of you, Toph," Yue explained. "They're nicknaming you _"The Runaway"_."

This discovery, however, left Toph impressed rather than disgusted.

"A wanted poster! That's so great! _"The Runaway"_. I love my new nickname. Is there a picture of me? Does it look good?" She asked them.

The Water Tribe couple looked at her and back at the poster, seeing the resemblance, despite the crude (and almost demonic) detail.

"Yeah," went Yue, "it actually does look kinda good. But you're missing the point. I'm starting to believe that Katara's right. These scams we've been pulling are drawing too much attention to us."

"Oh, don't you two be such worrywarts like her," Toph told them. "Try to think of it this way: Now that you have more money, you can help improve the invasion plan."

Yue and Sokka looked at each other before the Water Tribe boy uttered, "Well, I did have this idea of making armor for Appa for the invasion."

"Grr!" They heard said Flying Bison, as he lied down several feet away from them.

"To embrace the Air Nomad culture," added Yue, giving up and accepting the Earthbending Master's bribe to keep quiet about the poster.

"Grr!" Appa growled again, obviously sleeping.

"Here's a little extra so y'all can get a nice map of the Fire Nation," Toph said, cheerfully, as she gave them a sack full of the gold pieces. "On second thought, make it an atlas."

"I do like expensive atlases," Sokka expressed, causing Yue to pat him on his back.

"Of course you do, dearest," she sighed. "You'd best keep that poster hidden where no one's going to find it, Toph."

"No problem," Toph told her, placing the poster in her clothes.

-x-

Five days went by, with some quietness going around, but as Yue was learning how to use her new shield with Jet and Zuko, Toph and Sokka (whom had found some time to acquire the materials needed to construct Appa's armor and piece them together, little by little) were still scamming, which was driving Katara very unhappy about their lack of awareness to potential danger.

When the two came back, just as Katara had Waterbend some soup into Appa's mouth, she questioned where she already knew they were at and what they were doing.

"Back from more scamming again, are we?" She asked Toph, hiding no hint that she was angry.

"Yes, we were," she answered, expressing that she herself was angry that the Waterbender was getting in her business again.

"And I suppose you don't think what you're doing is dangerous at all?"

"No, I don't."

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

Yue and Zuko stopped practicing and saw Katara pull out a piece of parchment paper that looked similar to the one the Tribal Princess and Sokka showed Toph.

"Then, what is this, exactly?" Katara asked Toph, showing it to her.

"I don't know!" Toph shouted at her, infuriated by their lack of recollection that she was blind. "Why don't you tell me! I mean, seriously, what's with you people? I'm blind!"

"It's a wanted poster of you. "_The Runaway"_. Is this what you're called now? Are you proud of this?"

_Uh-oh!_ Yue gasped, wondering how Katara got a hold of the poster if Toph had hidden it.

"…You went through my stuff, didn't you?" Toph asked Katara, questioning where she got the poster. "You had no right!"

"Your stuff was messy," Katara defended her actions. "I was straightening up, and I just so happen to stumble upon it."

"You're lying, Katara!" Toph told her, able to tell due to her Earthbending (even Yue couldn't keep a secret from the Earthbender so long as she was on the ground).

"Fine, I'm lying," Katara had confessed, and Toph snatched the poster from her and walked away. "Hey! Don't walk away while I'm talking to you!"

_This has got to stop,_ Yue thought, listening in now on how Toph compared Katara to a mother; she was always bickering, always concerned, always controlling and so on. _What?! That's not entirely true. Katara's nobody's mother. I mean, yeah, she's responsible, concerned and everything. But that's true with any one. This is a war._

It became obvious to the Tribal Princess that the Waterbending Master had convinced her, in her own way, to stop with the scams, but the Earthbending Master was less than willing to listen, even to the point of comparing her to an actual mother.

"…I don't act that way," Katara had defended, but Yue had felt that was little more than a half-truth; ever since she joined with the Gaang, she mostly saw Katara act in a responsible manner not so different from a mother. "Sokka, do I act motherly to you?"

"Oh, no!" Sokka had gasped. "I'm staying outta this!"

"What about you, Yue?" She asked the Tribal Princess. "Do I act like a mom?"

Yue nervously turned away and uttered, "Well, uh…you, uh…"

She couldn't speak her mind about what was, from her point of view, the truth.

"Don't turn away and stand up straight when you talk," Katara instructed her.

"Yes, ma'am," Yue responded, doing such, but Toph walked away, saying that she couldn't stand being around her.

"Well, I can't stand being around you!" Katara told her, also walking away.

The others were left wondering why the two benders couldn't find a means to get along without shouting at each other for less than a few minutes.

-x-

"…They still not talking to each other?" The Duke asked Yue, sometime later in the day, as they were all just sitting around and not doing much.

"Nope," she answered the little boy. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Why are you called The Duke? Wouldn't it be easier to simply call you Duke?"

"The Duke's been my name since before I can remember joining the Freedom Fighters," he explained; all he could remember from before was never having a home of his own…or other family relatives to speak of.

"Okay," she accepted this explanation, and then noticed Sokka and Aang talking about using Hawky for something. "Excuse me for a moment."

She got up off the ground and went over to see them. Sokka was writing something on a piece of paper with a humorous grin on his face; he had obviously planned something.

"What are you doing?" She asked them.

"Sokka came up with the idea to make it seem as though Toph wrote an apology letter and had Hawky send it to Katara," Aang answered her as Sokka finished writing said letter.

"That won't work," she told them.

"Huh? Why not?" Sokka asked her.

"One: Katara will know that it's your handwriting, Sokka. Two: Toph can't write because she can't see words. So, the apology letter's pretty useless."

The boys groaned in complete realization of what she was saying.

"How could we forget that Toph can't write?" Sokka asked.

"Yep, we're idiots," added Aang. "I guess we should try to send Toph a letter and say it's from Katara."

"You're gonna have a similar problem with that," Yue told him, feeling like she did the day they arrived at Ba Sing Se and met Joo Dee. "Toph can't write because she can't see words, and if she can't see words that are written on paper, she can't read them. To read and write words, one must be able to see words, and Toph can't do any of the three."

Sokka then apologized to Hawky and got up off the ground and walked away.

"If it makes it any better, I'll go talk to Katara," Yue told Sokka. "You go talk to Toph. We'll meet up later on."

"Good idea," Sokka praised her, and left to find Toph.

It wasn't difficult to find Katara; Yue had seen her going down to an open cave underneath a nearby cliff sometime earlier. It seemed like a nice setting…for a little date or social activity in Yue's point of view. But when she finally found Katara, she wasn't entirely prepared for what she saw: The Master Waterbender was sitting in the water up to her upper torso, which was exposed! Yue had no clue that she had left to go bathing, and it left her feeling flushed!

"Oh!" She gasped, and Katara looked over and saw her. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to disturb you…or peep. I, uh…just wanted to talk about what happened earlier."

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about, Yue," she told her. "We're both girls."

Yue agreed that that much was true, and sat down with her legs in the water; with some of the money obtained from the scamming, she was able to acquire some clothes that allowed more freedom of movement than the school outfit she had stolen with the others when they needed disguises.

"…So let me see if I got this," they both overheard somebody that sounded like Toph speaking above their heads atop the cliff, "you brought me out here to explain that your sister's not as annoying as I make her out to be. Right, Sokka?"

It was Toph, and she was speaking to Sokka.

"Nope," Sokka responded, "she's pretty much a pain in the blubber sometimes."

Yue gasped and looked at Katara, who was scowling in anger. The Tribal Princess nodded in the negative, not wanting a potential fight to occur.

"She's always gotta be right about certain things, and then she gets bossy, involved in your business and such," Sokka added, and Yue couldn't believe that she was hearing this; it was completely out of line and disrespectful.

"I don't know how you put up with it," Toph said to him.

"Actually…I rely on it in my own way," the Water Tribe girls heard Sokka respond.

"I don't think I understand what you mean by that."

"You see, when our mom died, that was one of the hardest times in my life. Our family was a total mess in the months that followed…but Katara… She had so much strength. She stepped up and took on so much responsibility. She helped fill in the void that was left by our mom's death." Sokka had explained, which helped to calm Katara down and it impressed Yue that he could say such a kind thing about his sister.

"I guess I can see what you mean by that," Toph told him.

"I'm gonna tell you something that sounds a little crazy. Something I've not told anyone before. I haven't even told Yue yet, but, in all honesty, I'm not entirely sure that I can remember what my mother looked like. It really seems like, my whole life…for as long as I can remember…Katara's been the one looking out for me. She's always been the one that's just there, and now, when I try to remember my mom, Katara's is the only face I can picture."

Overcome with emotion, both Water Tribe girls shed tears.

"Honestly, sometimes Katara does act motherly," went Toph, sounding sad, "but that's not always a bad thing. She's compassionate and kind…and she really cares about me…the real me. That's more than my own mom ever did."

Yue covered her face to hide her tears and expression whilst Katara lowered deeper into the water.

PUNCH! Toph had punched Sokka in his left shoulder.

"Don't you ever tell them I told you that!" She told him.

"Hey, my lips are sealed," Sokka defended.

When the girls heard what they assumed to be them walking away, Yue inhaled and spoke to Katara, "You're a good influence for him. And…you are definitely motherly. You had asked me earlier that question, and I've answered you. But you're motherly in a good way."

"Thank you, Yue," she responded.

-x-

As day finally became night, the Gaang all regrouped at the campsite. Zuko, despite all of his attempts, couldn't get the campfire to rise up, even by a small notch. His Firebending wasn't gone, but had diminished to a massive degree.

"…At least you're still excellent in the use of your swords," said Smellerbee, hoping to cheer him up. "Surely, not many Firebenders excel in the use of swords."

"What?!" Aang and Sokka heard Toph gasp, seeing her talking with Katara and Yue. "You want to pull a scam?"

"Not just any scam," went Katara. "The ultimate scam. What do you say? You in?"

"You know I'm in," the Earthbender responded, and then Yue noticed the boys were looking their way.

"What's going on, Yue?" Sokka asked.

"I convinced Katara to try and pull a scam with Toph and I," she explained. "We're going to do it tomorrow. Obtain the reward money by pretending to turn Toph in."

-x-

The next day, outside of the Fire Fountain City, Katara, Yue and Toph were working up their ultimate scam.

"It's full-proof," went Katara, holding up the wanted poster. "It says here that you're worth a lot. At least ten times what you made in your other scams. We turn you in, collect the reward, then you Metalbend out of jail, we meet up at the rendezvous point, and we're home free."

"Let's do this," Yue said to them.

In less than an hour, the scam was playing itself out quite well: Toph was running away from Katara and Yue, whom had requested the aid of Fire Nation soldiers working in the town and had thrown a net toward Toph, capturing her.

"How could you two do this to me?!" Toph feigned anger, though she made it seem so real. "You betrayed me!"

"You brought this upon yourself," responded Katara.

"We had no choice," added Yue, and the soldiers dragged her away.

"You two did the right thing by turning in "The Runaway"," said the man that was the town's mayor.

"Sometimes, the right thing is its own reward," responded Yue.

"That's nice to hear you say that?" He said back to her.

"Though…we still want the actual reward, of course," went Katara.

"Right. Right this way, please."

As the Water Tribe women followed him, the Earthbending Master had been dragged to a holding cell made of wood, right next to a cell made of metal. Toph had been infuriated to find her sight stunted by the lack of solid rock beneath her feet.

"Hey, what kind of cell is this?!" She demanded.

"A wooden one!" The guard told her, and then she was left alone.

Meanwhile, as the mayor was opening a money box in front of the girls, Yue was getting a strange vibe in the air around them.

_Something's not right,_ she thought, hearing the door behind them creak open.

"That's them!" The mayor uttered, pointing to Katara and her. "They're the girls you're looking for!"

They turned around…but had to raise their heads up at the mountain of the man they had encountered before: The Firebender with the third eye on his forehead.

"Uh-oh…" Yue gasped, wishing she had brought her sword as a precaution.

-x-

"Something's not right," went Sokka, having a bad feeling in his heart. "Their scam shouldn't be taking so long."

"I was thinking the same thing," added Aang. "We'd better go check on them."

Aang, Sokka, Jet, Longshot and Pipsqueak went to the Fire Fountain City while Zuko and the others stayed behind at the campsite.

-x-

In the wooden cell, the girls were quiet, not having anything to talk about…until Yue realized something quite serious.

"This is nothing more than a setup," she expressed.

"Well, we are trapped in a cell made of wood, Yue," went Toph and Katara. "What could you expect?"

"No, girls, not us. We're the bait. He wants Sokka."

"What? I can't believe this! I didn't anticipate this at all with planning the scam." Katara expressed. "But I still don't understand this: Why Sokka? I would understand perfectly if it were Aang, but why my brother?"

"Sokka assumes it's because of Azula," Yue explained. "Remember how you told me that Sokka injured her face with his boomerang before we escaped Ba Sing Se? She might've hired him to hunt him down and get rid of him."

"A woman scorned," said Toph. "Azula gets ticked by a facial injury and she sends an assassin after the guy that hurt her."

"People of royal blood will often resort to having other people do their dirty work for them if they don't want to soil their own hands," Yue told her. "Toph, hasn't your parents ever sent people to go find you whenever you go missing?"

"Many times over," the blind Earthbender revealed.

"You know, they're only concerned about you, even if they view your blindness as something you can't find ways around to do things by yourself. Maybe a bit too much than regularly. Okay, maybe way too much than regularly, and they probably don't try to understand that you're capable of handling yourself quite remarkably… Oh, great, now I'm sounding motherly."

"And people think I'm motherly," said Katara.

"Well, you are motherly…in a good way."

"And I wanted to prove that I can be fun to hang with."

"Katara, you are fun to hang with," Toph confessed. "If nothing else, you're fun to argue with."

"Ah-ha-ha!" Yue chuckled; that much was true, as it was always a bit funny how you argue with a young Waterbending Master like her.

-x-

"This place wasn't so quiet the last time we were here," said Sokka, as he and the others wandered around the Fire Fountain City grounds.

"Where do you think everybody ran off to?" Aang asked, and then head an inhaling sound and looked up at a roof. "Sokka, watch out!"

BLAST! A blast of explosive fire nearly caught Sokka, but Jet was close enough to knock him out of the way. The blast itself came from the Firebender that was after Sokka.

"It's 'Boom-Boom Man'!" Jet expressed, but hearing the designation left a sour taste on Sokka's tongue; it didn't sound right or do the enemy justice.

"I'm starting to think that's not a good name for him," Sokka told them as they ran to counterattack the assassin before he could put an end to them.

-x-

BLAST! The girls could hear the sounds of explosions going on outside and knew that a fight was being committed.

"What are we going to do?" Katara wondered.

"I'm not sure," Toph said, examining the durability of the wooden cage. "If only we had some water or rocks around. We need bendables."

"Toph, what about your meteor bracelet? You could make a saw with it, right?" Yue asked her.

"I left it back at the campsite," Toph sighed. "I was worried the guards would take it."

"Great," Yue sighed, but then noticed the sweat pouring from Katara's head. "Um, Katara? You can use the sweat on your head."

"Huh?" Katara went, confused.

"Sweat. Water. Bend the sweat!" Yue expressed, and Katara felt the sweat on her head.

"Of course!" Katara finally realized.

"Uh, Yue, you wanna fill me in?" Toph asked.

"If you're sweating, you're making your own supply of water," the Tribal Princess explained.

"Yue, you're a genius!"

They watched as Katara bended the ample amount of sweat and began cutting the wooden bars.

-x-

BLAST! The Firebender fired several more blasts at Sokka and Aang, but to no avail. Longshot managed to hit the assassin in the shoulder with two arrows, but was shocked to discover that the guy was quite durable; he pulled the arrows out of his shoulder and didn't even scream. BLAST! He fired more blasts at Longshot, who evaded them by hiding behind a building.

"This guy's really good," said Jet to Aang and Sokka. "Even if we hit him, he doesn't give in to pain."

"Try splitting up," Aang suggested. "He can't chase us all down."

BLAST! Another explosion forced them to split up and the Firebender had to choose between who he was going after first: The Water Tribe boy or the Avatar? While the Avatar seemed like the better target due to the threat he posed against the Fire Nation, Azula had pointed out that her main concern wasn't the Avatar but the Water Tribe boy, so his other targets were a secondary concern. He chose Sokka over Aang.

Sokka ran down the street, looking behind him to find the assassin coming after him! He guessed that Azula was very desperate to want him dealt with. Seeing that his path took him right to the fountain shaped like Fire Lord Ozai, he jumped onto the fountain and decided to at least acquire the satisfaction of destroying a landmark based on their top Fire Nation enemy. As the assassin got closer, he stood his ground on the fountain.

_Come on, you colossal, Firebending mayhem,_ he thought. _Come to me._

BLAST! The assassin fires and Sokka dodged, causing the explosion to demolish the statue of Ozai. Sokka fell to the ground, wishing he'd brought his boomerang and sword.

"Okay, maybe that was a dumb idea," he told him, groaning as he tried to get up, seeing the assassin now within three feet from where he was. "Uh-oh."

He was about to trigger another explosion against the Water Tribe boy…until a bolt of ice suddenly encased his whole head!

"Hey, Sokka!" Sokka heard his sister calling him. "He's distracted! Run for it!"

Sokka got up and ran toward the girls.

"What happened to you guys?" He asked Yue.

"It's a very long story," she expressed, now running as the Firebender freed himself from the ice.

BLAST! He fired at them three times and actually caught them, sending them flying to the ground.

"Aaah…ouch…" Yue groaned, bleeding a little from her forehead as she looked up at the sky. "Huh?"

The Firebender was about to put an end to them when another bolt of ice caught his head!

"Are you guys alright?!" Yue heard Aang's voice call out to them.

Getting up and shaking off the effects of nearly getting blown up and burnt, Sokka and the girls saw Aang riding a wave of water from the damaged fountain. The wave made contact with the Firebender and washed him off his feet.

"Now what?" Toph asked.

"We run!" Yue expressed, and they ran off to find Jet, Longshot and Pipsqueak before the Firebender freed himself from the new block of ice around his head.

SMASH! The assassin managed to shatter the ice and free himself, seeing that his targets were getting away again. BLAST! He fired at them, but only destroyed part of a building, which sent chunks of debris his way…and a tiny piece of sculpted concrete managed to hit him on his forehead, right up against his third eye!

Sokka, Yue, Aang, Katara and Toph found Jet, Longshot and Pipsqueak and ran for it before the Firebender caught up with them again, but said Firebender showed persistence; he was unwilling to let them get away.

Yue noticed that the enemy looked disoriented and wondered if he hated water, but her curiosity had to wait as he prepared to fire another explosion at them.

"Oh!" She gasped, turning around and raising her hands up, just as he was about to fire…and a strong gust of winds came and pushed the assassin backwards…and his explosion left tiny blasts that exploded around himself. "Huh?"

The assassin, once the explosions ceased, could no longer find them and was left with only failure.

-x-

"Hey, I got it now!" Sokka expressed to the others as they made it back to the campsite. "The perfect alias for that guy! "Combustion Man"!"

As they started to pack up and prepare to rest for the night and leave the next day, Toph expressed, "Good job, Sokka. Now, let's rest up so we can get out of here tomorrow before "Combustion Man" finds us again."

"It's catchy," Yue praised Sokka for his genius. "He makes things blow up."

As the night came, most of the group was already asleep, except for Sokka, Yue, Toph and Katara; the blind Earthbender had asked them of a great favor. So, while Yue was feeding Hawky in preparation for a long journey ahead of him, Katara was writing for Toph a letter to her parents while Toph herself was uttering the words she couldn't write down herself and Sokka was making sure that Hawky's message carrier was properly secured to the Messenger Hawk so that the letter wouldn't be lost. When all was said and done, Hawky was sent flying off into the silence of the night to his message's destination: Gaoling of the Earth Kingdom.

A/N: I apologize for the long wait again. As always, life's harsh realities get in the way of the pleasantries of fantasy. I don't know how long it'll be until the next chapter is prepared, but I hope to have it done in due time. Please, read and review. Peace!


	14. The Princess and the Preparation

Creation began on 05-26-11

Creation ended on 06-24-11

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Preparation

_The last few days have been a little hectic,_ thought Yue, recalling the last several days since the last encounter with Combustion Man. _That Hama… To think that I meet another member of the Southern Water Tribe…and she turns out to be driven by the desires of revenge because of being imprisoned. Instead of trying to return home the moment she escaped, she chose to stay and live among who she felt was the enemy when her captives were just regular people, not involved in the war in any way that was beneficial._

The Tribal Princess then turned to look at Katara as she slept, remembering how she looked after learning that horrible Waterbending skill. To think that of all the Waterbending arts, they'd encounter one that they hated, not just because of its ability but because of its name: Bloodbending.

_The way she looks when she's asleep almost makes you think she never learned Bloodbending._

Momo, who was also awake in the silence of the night, climbed atop the princess' head and chatted. The moonlight reflecting in Yue's eyes didn't help much with the air traveling; Appa was flying over to an island that was a good distance from the island on which the Fire Nation Capital was situated. Once there, the Gaang would setup everything else that needed to be prepared and then the invasion plan would be put into motion. All their friends and allies from around the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes would be here in about four days, which left them ample time to get things in order. The only subtle acceptance of the invasion plan was the absence of Firebending power (although Zuko felt disgusted with himself for being unable to teach Aang any of his own skills, even if most of them were just basics, he was okay with it since, virtually, all Firebenders would be without their bending for three hours), which allowed Aang the advantage of having the other three elements to call upon.

Appa grumbled as he flew lower; the island was closing in.

"Hmm?" Yue mumbled, seeing the island. "Oh."

"Huh?" Sokka muttered as he got up. "Yue?"

"We're here," she told him.

Appa landed on the island and the Gaang got off and stretched their limbs.

"This is it, the official rendezvous point for the invasion force," said Sokka to the others.

"So, how'd you pick this place over all other places?" Zuko asked him.

"Before we got to Crescent Island, my dad and I found this place on a map," he explained. "It's one of the few islands in the Fire Nation that's completely uninhabited and the harbor is surrounded by cliffs. It seemed the perfect spot for the invasion to start."

"And we're four days ahead of schedule," added Smellerbee, still tired. "The Fire Nation won't know what hit 'em before it's too late."

"Whoa," went Aang, "the invasion's in just four days? Four days?"

"We'll be ready by then," Yue calmed him.

The following morning, Yue woke up to the sound of somebody making grunts and looked to everyone else, shrugging off the drowsiness of sleep. Turning toward a nearby tree, she saw Aang, punching the tree, which seemed to be taking a heavy beating from the punches of the Air Nomad.

"Uh, Aang?" She asked. "Just how long have you been up?"

"Just a few hours," he answered her. "I have a lot of skills to refine if I'm going to face Ozai."

"You know," went Katara, "there is such a thing as over-training. You wind up stressing yourself out."

"My form is bad from not practicing for days." Aang defended, formed his Air Scooter and took off. "Be back in a bit!"

-x-

Azula examined her face and found that the scar that was given to her by the Water Tribe boy had completely healed up. You couldn't even tell she ever had a scar. This made her time in the war meeting all the more calming. The meeting itself had to do with the Fire Nation's future plans for the Earth Kingdom. It still remained in their control due to the fall of Ba Sing Se, but according to one of the highest generals of the army, there have been Earthbender rebellions allover other parts of the nation where the Fire Nation took over.

Due to Azula's discovery of an eclipse from the former Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se, which he ignored due to wanting to stay in control over the power he had over the Earth Kingdom capital, the Fire Nation would be prepared for any assault made on them by potential enemies. This included the Avatar and his friends. One of Azula's subtle, unimportant woes was that Long Feng would never see the day of the eclipse or the Fire Nation's victory over the other nations…since Azula herself, once she discovered this information from the Earthbending Master, put an end to his existence. Who knew Earthbenders, when deprived of their rocks, were just as vulnerable to being burnt alive by blue flames as regular people?

"…Azula, you infiltrated the Earth Kingdom capital once under the guise of one of their own," went Ozai, trying to decide what to do with the Earthbender rebels. "What do you know of them?"

Azula thought about the Earth Kingdom people…for about five seconds, and then told her father, "They believe that as long as they have hope, they can endure anything we throw at them."

"Hmm… Yes… We need to destroy their hope," Ozai realized.

"How do you want us to do that?" Another of the high generals asked him.

"Azula?" Ozai asked her.

"I suggest you take their hope, along with the rest of their land, and burn it to the ground," she expressed; she could envision the Earth Kingdom razed by blue flames now.

-x-

GASP! Yue awoke from a horrid nightmare: She saw the Earth Kingdom and its people getting burnt to ashes by Azula and other Firebenders.

"Yue?" Sokka woke up and looked at her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she answered him. "Just a bad dream."

GASP! They turned and saw Aang getting up; he looked terrified being deprived of rest, very different from before when Azula was chasing them constantly one day and they hadn't enough time to properly recoup. Then, he left the campsite.

"What was that about?" Yue asked Sokka.

"Not sure," he responded. "Let's go see."

They got up and found him training again, this time by some Koala-Sheep; his martial arts' form was out of shape due to his sleep deprivation.

"Aang, it's late," Yue told him. "You really need to sleep."

"I can't," he told her back. "I forgot my pants and my mathematics test when I fought Ozai."

_Pants? Mathematics test?_ Sokka thought, wondering why Aang needed to know mathematics if he was going to face the very ruler of the Fire Nation on the battlefield. _Pants, I could understand, but math is something I don't get right now._

"Aang, please…sleep," Yue told the Avatar.

Aang sighed and nodded that he would go back to sleep, and they lead him back to the campsite.

-x-

_Somehow, I get the feeling that Aang's not the only one that needs to be prepared for the invasion,_ thought Yue the next morning, seeing Aang was being hysterical due to his nightmares.

The Air Nomad was constantly stressed, with just two days before the invasion plan was set into motion, and every time he thought about facing the Fire Lord, he got more stressed.

"I'm open to suggestions on how to help him," said Sokka to the others.

"I think I got one," Yue told him.

In less than an hour, the Northern Tribal Princess, Southern Waterbending Master and Southern Air Nomad were inside a steaming crater.

"Yoga stretches can work wonders if you do them in extreme heat conditions," Katara told Aang. "Reach for the sun."

Aang and Yue followed suit as Katara lead them in the session.

"Feel your Chi paths clearing," she went on as they bent over so their heads were touching the ground. "Now, close your eyes. How are you feeling?"

"I feel relaxed," went Yue. "Aang?"

"I feel…really warm," he answered.

"Good. Go on."

"Like…there's this warm feeling all around me. This heat…like…I'm in the Fire Lord's palace and he's shooting a fireballs at me…and the whole world's being engulfed in flames!" Aang then rolled onto his back and looked freaked out.

"Well, it worked for a moment," Katara told Yue. "Maybe his stress is the kind that needs to be talked out, not worked out."

"Yeah, maybe," agreed Yue, and several minutes later, she sat with Aang in front of Sokka, who wore his ridiculous fake beard and mustache, acting all mature.

"So, Avatar Aang," he went, sounding too mature. "Tell me what's bothering you."

"It's the invasion plan," Aang expressed, "and that I have to face Fire Lord Ozai."

"Tell me about this Fire Lord Ozai."

"He's the leader of the whole Fire Nation, possibly the greatest Firebender alive. Maybe stronger than Combustion Man."

"I don't really think Combustion Man's a Firebending Master," said Yue to them.

"And if I don't defeat him, the world is doomed." Aang added in on the returning conversation.

"Hmm…life does feel that way sometimes during a great war," Sokka expressed, "that we're all trying to save the world from total destruction."

"Okay, but what I do, exactly, to feel better about it all?" Aang asked, and Yue held up a nearby Koala-Sheep and placed it in front of the Avatar.

"Would you like to try screaming into this pillow?" She asked him, and he gave it a try.

"MMMMMMMM!" He yelled, muffled by the animal.

"Well?" They both asked him.

"I think it worked a little bit," he revealed to them.

"Then we're ready to go on to Toph's method," Yue said.

Heading over to a different spot in the small woods, the trio for their Earthbending companion sitting on what looked like a bed made of small pillars of wood.

"How did the talking go?" Toph asked them.

"It worked a bit, and now he just needs a back pounding to aid in stress relief," Sokka answered her.

"You ready, Aang?" Yue asked the Air Nomad.

"Yeah. Pound away."

"He's all yours, Toph."

Then Toph used her Earthbending to made the individual wooden pillars pummel Aang's back.

"Ahh! Ow! Uh, guys! I…think…this…is…bruising…me!" Aang cried out, and Toph ceased her method on him, causing Aang's body to fall off the pillars. "Ouch."

"Sorry," Toph apologized to him. "I forgot you have baby skin."

Yue went over and helped Aang up and asked, "Did that help any?"

"Uh-uh," he told her, feeling a little pain in his lower back.

"Well, there's one other method we can try," said Toph, now holding what looked like porcupine-like animal in her hands. "Acupuncture!"

"Aaaaahhh!" Aang and Yue both gasped and ran off, and Sokka chased after them.

-x-

Katara found Zuko training by a cliff and wondered what he was up to if all he had at his disposal was his swordsmanship.

"What's that you're doing, Zuko?" She asked him, getting his attention.

"Just some basic Firebending: Feeling the sun and breathing exercises," he answered.

"I think I know why your Firebending's weak: It's probably because you've switched sides."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. Your bending probably came from all your rage…and you don't have the amount you used to in order to bend."

"Maybe, but I don't want to rely on hate and anger like the rest of the Fire Nation does, so there must be another way to Firebend."

"Maybe. We'll find a way. Maybe there are some Firebenders that don't bend out of rage."

"The only one I ever knew that didn't appear to bend out of rage was my Uncle Iroh."

"He almost hardly ever bends, doesn't he?"

"Actually, he bends very little. Even when I was hunting down Aang or when we were running from the Fire Nation by hiding in the Earth Kingdom. The only time he probably ever bended was that night the Earth Kingdom was conquered, though we never saw it since we were escaping."

Before Katara could speak a new sentence, Aang and Yue came running by, coming to a halt, out of breath with Sokka right behind them.

"I'm guessing that the methods of helping Aang aren't helping?" Katara asked them.

"Don't…try…acupuncture," Yue panted, catching her breath.

"What?" Zuko asked her.

"Toph's methods of stress relief are terrifying," Aang expressed, and soon enough Sokka had arrived, also out of breath.

"And I thought Aang was fast due to being an Airbender," he panted, "but Yue ran just as fast as he did. Yue, you were a blur when I tried to keep up."

Due to the fact that they were running, Aang hadn't noticed how Yue was able to keep up with him. Strangely, only…other Airbenders were able to run as fast as he did. Firebenders weren't as fast as Airbenders, Earthbenders were as fast as their ability to manipulate the ground allowed them to be, and Waterbenders were barely able to keep up.

"I guess my time in the Earth Kingdom did some good for my feet," Yue expressed, really not wanting to even try and find out why she was able to run as fast as she did a few minutes ago.

-x-

The solitude of her family home, minus several of her family's servants, made Mai more moody than ever. Not only that, but being told that in two days' time, she'd have to leave the capital because of a potential invasion made on the Fire Nation by the other nations. Sometimes, she really hated Azula and her father, the Fire Lord, more than she hated Zuko for betraying the Fire Nation and siding with the Avatar and his friends. Not to mention leaving her.

It seemed the only person she knew that didn't seem concerned with the war at all was Ty Lee, who stayed on Ember Island to continue enjoying herself until after the day of the eclipse. Mai envied her ability to be careless half the time. The war never seemed to be doing anybody that tried not to care about it any good. Ever since her time at the Royal Academy for Girls, she knew about the history of the war, that it was the Fire Nation's way of sharing its prosperity with the other nations.

-x-

"…Yue…Yue…" Yue heard somebody calling her, and she woke up, seeing Fire Lord Ozai.

"Huh?!" She gasped, performing a back flip and reaching for her sword.

"Wake up, Princess Yue. You overslept! You missed the invasion…and everyone's gone!" Ozai told her, breaking into a fit of maniacal laughter.

Then, Yue saw a large comet that may have been Sozin's Comet, with Firebenders setting the lands ablaze with frighten people running for their lives. She tried to find Sokka and Aang, but found what might have been their…remains: Sokka was reduced to a smoldering skeleton wrapped in Water Tribe armor while Aang was left in a similar state, but left in pieces with his Air Nomad clothing in tatters. She then tried to find Katara and the others, but instead found Momo in front of her, looking rather calm and unusual.

"Shhh…" Momo gestured to her, and then an image of Toph appeared.

"Toph!" Yue sighed a breath of relief as she approached the blind Earthbender.

A gust of wind blew in front of Toph and moved her bangs away to reveal to the Tribal Princess that Toph had no eyes!

GASP! Yue backed away from the girl, who then turned into a giant koi fish, one that she was familiar with.

"Yue…" The spiritual voice of Tui had spoken. "It's time you took your place as the Moon Spirit."

"No!" Yue screamed, and darkness took her.

GASP! She awoke to find herself back at the campsite, bathed in the light of the moon. It was just another nightmare revolving around the fear…and shame…of failure.

"Yue?" She turned and saw Sokka looking up at her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she told him. "Just another nightmare."

"What was it about?" He asked, concerned.

"I overslept, the invasion failed, Sozin's Comet arrived, and many people suffered. I guess Aang's not the only one plagued by fear."

"We're all afraid of what might happen. One of the main reasons we're putting so much hope in the invasion plan is to keep from facing the Fire Nation before the comet arrives. Regular-level Firebenders seem like the better opponent than those amplified by the presence of a powerful comet."

"I keep picturing the Earth Kingdom going up in flames. Blue flames."

"Azula's flames?"

"Yeah," Yue then pressed her left hand against her chest; the injury had healed up much faster in the last few days, right to the point where it didn't even bleed, anymore. "I gotta face her and keep her from hurting other people."

-x-

"You don't look like you slept well, Aang," said Toph, only knowing that Aang moved slower than he did yesterday.

"I had a strange dream last night," he expressed. "Yue had told me that there was something she needed to tell me."

"Oh?" Yue went, as the Gaang sat down for breakfast.

"Yeah."

Then, the Tribal Princess recalled something that happened to her the last time they encountered Combustion Man.

"Yeah, there was something I've been meaning to tell you. It was the last time we saw Combustion Man. It might've just been my imagination, but it seemed real enough. I saw something in the sky that probably wasn't there or wasn't supposed to be there." Yue told him.

"What did you see?" Aang asked.

"I saw…an Air Nomad flying high in the sky."

Zuko looked up at her like she were saying the impossible! There was no way that there could be any other Air Nomads like Aang. His great-grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin, had wiped out the Air Nomads one-hundred years ago, leaving Aang the last of them. And the Fire Nation knew that if there were any surviving Air Nomads other than the Avatar, they would be eliminated on sight.

"Surely, it may have been a figment of your imagination," he told Yue. "I traveled around the world for three years looking for anybody with Air Nomad tattoos and Aang's the only one I've ever seen. There's not even a person other than him that bends air."

"It's not entirely possible that all of them were wiped out," Yue countered. "By culture and nature, Air Nomads are wanderers, always moving from place to place without a fixed home. Maybe some of them, who weren't at the Air Temples that were attacked, hid themselves away for years and nobody's seen them. Who knows, maybe we've seen descendants of Air Nomads that just don't display the tattoos on themselves."

"That," went Jet, "is not so crazy to believe."

Later in the day, Sokka had managed to finish the construction of Appa's armor, which left Katara and Yue wondering how he was able to come up with an idea like this for the Flying Bison. Aang, without a doubt, had run off to train again, despite having worked himself to the bone. Zuko had left to find Aang before the Avatar had, by some form of accident, hurt himself.

"…The last day before the invasion plan, and it looks like Aang's totally stressed out," said Smellerbee to The Duke.

"He's the one that can save the world, so he's more worked up than we are," The Duke responded, looking toward the Koala-Sheep. "Smellerbee, what do all of those look like when bundled together?"

Smellerbee looked to the Koala-Sheep and saw what could've almost been a large cloud with black spots…or…a construct that helped a lot when a person desperately needed it.

"The Duke, you're a genius," she told him.

"I am?"

-x-

As Mai packed her bag for the short time she'd be spending away from her house, she wondered if, by any measure of belief or hope, Zuko was going to be here. It seemed so unfair to her now. Zuko might be here when she won't be…and then later she'll be back…and he won't be here. Were the spirits of the Spirit World trying to keep her separated from Zuko, whom she wanted to see again after so many years away from the Fire Nation?

"Are you prepared, miss?" One of the servants asked her outside her room.

"Give me a minute," she responded, and gathered her extra stash of stilettos and shurikens. "Okay, let's get going."

She was hoping that, one way or another, she'd get to meet up with Zuko, either as a prisoner or worse…a lifeless husk.

-x-

"You're going to hurt yourself someday like that," went Zuko to Aang, as the night before the invasion came. "I mean, bending a large wall of water right in front of yourself and aiming it toward you is dangerous. You were lucky I caught you before you accidentally drowned yourself."

Aang wasn't really paying attention. Something else had caught his attention: It looked like a…a bed…made of clouds right in front of them.

"Oh, now, that's new. An imaginary bed made of clouds." Aang said.

"Oh, it's real, Aang," went Toph, as she, Smellerbee, Katara, Sokka, The Duke and Yue showed up and presented the final solution for his problems. "We spent a good measure of three hours making it."

Several bald Koala-Sheep wandered around, shivering and sneezing.

"Smellerbee figured that a good night's sleep on this will end all of your stress…hopefully," went Sokka, actually hoping that Smellerbee's idea would help where all else failed.

"Oh, you guys keep telling me I need to sleep, but I can't, the invasion's tomorrow. I still need to practice. Somebody hit me." Aang tried to keep from falling asleep.

"Only Toph would be interested in hitting you," Yue told him, and Toph expressed this fact by balding her left fist and hitting her right palm with it. "All you really need is one good night of rest. Everything will be alright tomorrow. You'll do fine against Ozai."

"You really think so?" Aang asked the Tribal Princess.

"Positively. He's probably nothing but brute force and firepower. He doesn't have the wits, cleverness or humor that you possess."

Aang then fell onto the bed and yawned heavily.

"Thank you," he told them all, and then fell to sleep.

"You really think he'll be ready by tomorrow?" Zuko asked Yue.

"Mm-hmm," she responded with a nod, and then walked away. "Everyone will be at the top of their game tomorrow. The Fire Nation won't stand a chance."

Hardly one to believe in the power of hoping, the banished prince believed her when she said that everyone will be at their best in the invasion, and this included him, with his Firebending or without it.

-x-

Azula looked out at the moon, wondering why, of all the times to ever think about it, she hated it so much. Until she recalled why: Because the moon reminded her of the Tribal Princess that saved the Avatar from her attack that could've ended him and the threat he represented against the Fire Nation's goal of conquering the world. That girl, that supporter of the spirit of the planet itself that walks around in human form with each reincarnation…along with the peasant that she sent the assassin after. With any luck, she won't have to worry about seeing him if the would-be invaders ever made their way to the palace.

"Oh, how I hate the moon," she sighed, imagining the moon, its presence, its servants and its princess all burning into ash by her flames. "Oh, how I hate the Water Tribes."

-x-

"Here's where I find the Lady of the Battlefield," went Sokka, finding Yue standing in front of a cave that was a good distance away from the campsite and rendezvous point. "What's on your mind?"

She turned to her Gentleman of the Battlefield and sighed, "Nothing much. I know everything will be alright tomorrow, that we've planned a great deal of strategies and tactics…but…"

Sokka noticed her right hand, clenching her sheathed sword, was shaking.

"It's just a small fear…that this night may very well be the last night before…we do what we've started the day we set foot onto the Fire Nation…going further into the inferno." She expressed.

"Yes, this is the last night before we go into battle…for the restoration of the Four Nations, to bring balance back to the world." He agreed. "Are you that afraid, Yue?"

"No…but I fear…that once the invasion begins…we won't be able to know the outcome of the battles we take part in. Fire Nation soldiers, even without their bending, will be without mercy…and I don't want to lose you."

"I don't want to lose you, either." Sokka then placed his left hand on her trembling limb. "We'll watch each other's back on the battlefield."

Yue dropped her sword and held onto Sokka for dear life. She couldn't believe this. The invasion was only mere hours away and she was falling apart over the unforeseeable events surrounding it. And the only person holding her together right now was this man she loved.

"Just for tonight," she uttered, "can we pretend there's nothing serious happening with the rest of the world out there?"

"Sure," Sokka responded. "For you, anything to feel relieved of your fears."

They went into the cave, unseen by anyone, and for the rest of that night pretended that there was no further suffering in the world. But also, in a lighter degree, the two pretended that they were the only ones left in the world, where everyone else just disappeared for a short while, leaving them to be with each other, undisturbed and unhindered by distractions or obligations. This…was their night before the invasion of the Fire Nation and the end of the war that span over one-hundred years. A night of solace and comfort before the day of violence, rage and achievement.

A/N: Here it is! The chapter before the invasion. Sorry it took long like the other one. Life's economic needs are a major distraction but provide you with a roof over your head and such. I hope the small amount of Yue and Sokka romance will compensate for the last few chapters. Read and review. Peace!


	15. The Princess and the Invasion

Creation began on 06-24-11

Creation ended on 10-05-11

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Invasion

A/N: Just in case anyone was wondering, there wasn't even the slightest hint of lemon in the last chapter, though it seemed like a good tease. It was only the calm before the storm, which is now. Don't worry, though, you'll get your precious lemon. Don't think for a moment that I would just not put one in this work of art. Here's the path to the inferno.

Double-checking his maps and notes one final time before the planned meeting, Sokka, who, during his time in the Fire Nation, had also been learning how to sew and perform stitch repair jobs, sporting a different version of his warm-weather Water Tribe garments that would be a necessity for his armor, and was making sure that nothing went wrong in the invasion. It had only been half an hour since he, Yue and the others had gotten up, and already he was fearing for the worst that nothing went right today. A cup appeared in front of his worried face and was placed in his right hand by a hand wearing a wrist guard. Looking up, he saw Katara, wearing her repaired and updated Water Tribe garb for the invasion, as well, and saw her look of reassurance that everything would be fine today.

"I can smell balance and victory in the air," went Yue, sporting a combination between her Water Tribe garb and Fire Nation garb, making an attempt to lighten the heavy mood of woe.

"Oh, really?" Toph asked her, dressed in her Earth Kingdom clothes. "I don't smell anything except the ocean water."

"It's an expression."

Soon enough, Aang showed up, well-rested and ready and ready for the end of the war.

"You slept well, Aang?" Yue asked him.

"Better than well," the Air Nomad responded, stretching his arms and legs. "The Fire Lord's going down and hard."

"So, what's your plan of action?" Jet asked. "Do you intend to make him submit with the power of the Avatar State?"

Aang sighed and explained, "I haven't used the Avatar State since the last time we were in the Earth Kingdom, and we all know how that almost turned out worse than what had happened the night we left. I never even mastered total control of the Avatar State."

Yue placed her right hand on her chest, her past injury a constant reminder of how the Avatar had almost been shot down by Azula had it not been herself taking the lightning attack for him. But things were different now. She had healed to the point of being ready for combat and her skill in the ways of the sword and shield would aid her in helping the group win the war. This was no time to let the Avatar himself doubt his abilities to bring order and balance back to the world.

"When the eclipse happens," Yue told Aang, "I don't believe you'll have to worry about lightning attacks from anyone for three hours."

"Hey, is that fog gonna halt the invasion from happening, guys?" Pipsqueak asked, as he and The Duke were on the lookout for friends and allies from the Earth Kingdom arriving today.

Sokka looked over them and saw the large fog and professed, "Nope. That is the invasion."

Within seconds, at least five ships broke free of the fog, all from the Water Tribes, and came closer to the island. The Tribal Princess had never expected to see Water Tribe ships today, but as Aang and Toph bended makeshift docks for them port at, she was believing it, just as she believed several of the friends and allies she'd seen and heard of.

"You made it," went Katara to her father, Chief Hakoda.

"Were you able to locate everyone I told you to try and find?" Sokka asked, amazed to see many Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom soldiers coming off the ships.

"Yes, but I'm a little concerned, Sokka," Hakoda responded, looking over at some of the warriors he was instructed to look for. "Some of these people don't seem like the warrior type."

Yue looked at the warriors Sokka's father was doubting and felt he had a reason to do so: Some of the allies and friends were from the Foggy Swamp Tribe. These warriors were dressed in armor fashioned from wood bark and leaves. However, she had faith in their Waterbending abilities due to seeing them in action when she and the Gaang met them in the Foggy Swamp.

"This place ain't nothing like the swamp, Tho," said the Foggy Swamp Waterbender known as Due to his friend, Tho.

"Is it just me, or these guys a little loose in the leaf head?" Hakoda asked Sokka and Katara.

"I just wish they'd wear pants," went his friend, Bato, as he walked past them.

"Pants are an illusion," Yue heard the leader of the Foggy Swamp Tribe, Huu, seeing that he was here, too, though less armored than his fellow people, "and so is death."

"Heh-heh!" She giggled; Huu seemed to think that almost everything trivial was an illusion along with the common truth that people die every now and then.

Looking around and past several Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom soldiers, she spotted Katara speaking with an Earth Kingdom boy with a split mustache and small beard on his face.

"It's good to see you again, Haru," Katara greeted the boy, Haru.

"Sokka, who's that?" Yue asked Sokka about Haru.

"That's Haru," he explained. "We met him when his village was under Fire Nation control. He had to hide his Earthbending abilities to avoid being imprisoned, but when he was found out, we helped him and father escape and take back their village with the other Earthbenders."

"Then locking away other benders are another of the Fire Nation's greatest crimes, suppressing all other forms of bending. I can't imagine a world where there's only Firebending."

"Me, neither."

STOMP! They turned another way and saw Toph getting picked up by one of two Earthbenders they didn't expect to see here: The Big, Bad Hippo and The Boulder.

"Hippo happy to see Blind Bandit!" The Hippo greeted Toph with a hug.

"You two looking for a rematch?" Toph asked her rival Earthbenders, though she wasn't a threat to them if her feet weren't on the ground at the moment.

"Negatory," went The Boulder to Toph. "The Boulder and The Hippo no longer fight for other's entertainment. Now, we fight for our nation!"

"Sweet," Toph expressed.

BOOM! They then turned to see smoke coming from one of the ships and Sokka sighed.

"I have a gut feeling I know who's in there," he told Yue. "It's time to introduce you to the Mechanist."

"The Mechanist?" Yue repeated, wondering if this Mechanist was from the Earth Kingdom…or from the Fire Nation.

As they approached the ship, Yue noticed a boy propelling himself off the gangplank in some sort of chair with wheels and stopping right in front of them. Following him were Pipsqueak and The Duke, along with an Earth Kingdom man that looked like he'd been in explosions, left and right, and had three fingers missing from his left hand and replaced them with wooden substitutes.

"Yue, this is our friend, the Mechanist and his son, Teo," Sokka introduced her to them. "Was that a new invention you were working on?"

"Yes, but unfortunately, the incendiary capabilities of peanut sauce prove to be a major failure," the Mechanist answered.

"You're making peanut sauce bombs?" Yue asked, a little confused.

"They're destructive," said Pipsqueak to her, licking his face off of said sauce.

"And delicious," added The Duke, licking his own face clean.

"Were you able to complete the plans that I sent you?" Sokka asked the Mechanist.

"Yes," he answered him. "And I do believe the Fire Nation will be in for a surprise."

-x-

The boat ride away from the Fire Nation Capital was boring and irritable for Mai. All civilians were escorted away for the day by the military. Of course, much of the civilians being escorted were very few due to the social status of the Fire Nation Capital; there were only a few hundred people living there besides herself. Luckily for herself, she'd been in contact with her uncle ever since she returned home, and he had promised to contact her regarding her…little problem with the banished prince…if anything turned up.

-x-

"Whoa," went Sokka, surprised to see that even their small invasion army looked huge up close.

"Don't worry," went Yue behind him, encouraging him. "You'll do just fine. Just tell them what the goal of the day is."

That put reassurance in his confidence and he carried the handful of scrolls detailing the plan of the invasion. As he got everyone's attention with the setting up of the scrolls, he inhaled and exhaled deeply from the stage fright.

"Good morning, everyone," he greeted the soldiers. "I'm sure as some of you may know, today is the Day of Black Sun, which gives us the opportunity to invade the Fire Nation when their Firebenders will be at their most vulnerable due to the solar eclipse. There are two stages to this invasion: A naval stage and then a land stage (he revealed on each scroll a detailed strategy on the invasion). In order to gain sea access to the Fire Nation Capital, we'll have to get past our primary major obstacle: The Gates of Azulon. After that, we hit the land…and we hit the land like an earthquake, securing the plaza tower by getting past their battlements, and once we do that, it should be smooth traveling toward the palace where the eclipse shall begin."

A hand was raised to ask a question; it was The Boulder, who seemed confused.

"The Boulder is confused," he told Sokka. "Isn't the point of the invasion to invade during the eclipse? When the Firebenders are powerless?"

"That would be a good strategy to follow, as the eclipse will last three hours, but we don't know how heavily guarded the royal palace will be with a lot of Firebenders around," Sokka rationalized. "That's when we'll need the advantage of the eclipse the most. Before the day ends, Avatar Aang will have defeated Fire Lord Ozai, we'll have gained control over the Fire Nation…and this war will be over!"

The people cheered at the plans on the invasion, Katara and Hakoda were proud of Sokka's speech…while Yue was amazed to see that he didn't let the sight of so many people looking at him intimidate his courage.

Half an hour later, Yue, who was sporting Water Tribe armor over her outfit, was looking for Aang, seeing him by the shore with a Koala-Sheep beside him, wondering what was up with his current attire: While his Air Nomad clothing was, more or less, stitched back together after the fall of the Earth Kingdom, he seemed to have a hard time trying to wear it properly.

"Trouble, Aang?" She asked, catching his attention as she noticed his mild discomfort in wearing the shirt and shawl of his outfit.

"Yeah," he sighed. "My clothes don't fit me well, anymore. I think all that running and exercising stretched my arms and legs too far."

"Actually, I believe it's because you grew a bit during our time here. Ever since I met you, I noticed how you didn't have a spare set of clothes. Oh! I think I got an idea! Improvise!" She told him.

"Huh?"

In four minutes, Yue was looking at Aang in an outfit that was the result of improvisation and addition of his Air Nomad clothes and Fire Nation disguise: The upper portion of his new outfit was composed of his Air Nomad clothing in the fashion of something called a toga that covered his whole upper body except for his right arm, while his lower body wore the pants of his Fire Nation disguise.

"Well?" Yue asked him, watching him perform a few stances in the new outfit.

"Thanks, Yue," he praised her. "This'll do just fine."

"Then let's get to the boats. They're ready to leave."

They regrouped with Sokka, who was now wearing his Water Tribe armor and they got onto a ship.

"Where'd you get that outfit, Aang?" He asked.

"Yue designed it for me when I couldn't fit into my clothes," Aang expressed with pride, but that caught Sokka off guard; he couldn't believe Yue made that outfit for Aang in very small time.

"Wow," he went. "Yue, you're incredible."

In no time, they were on the boats heading for the Fire Nation Capital. Yue noticed a giant statue shaped like the Fire Lord before Ozai: Fire Lord Azulon, surrounded by fog.

"Why would the Fire Nation build a giant statue of one of their previous Fire Lords out in the water?" She wondered.

"That's it," she heard Bato say behind her. "The Gates of Azulon."

"But…I don't see any gates," went Katara, disbelieving the statue being the obstacle.

"The statue of my grandfather is the primary part of the gates, Katara," said Zuko to her.

"Katara, you and the Swampbenders whip up a fog cover," said Chief Hakoda.

"We'll sneak past that statue just like we sneaked past the Fire Navy blockade," went the Swampbender, Tho, and the benders raised a fog from the ocean water to cover their presence.

As the ships slowly got closer, Yue felt a small, tingling sensation near her heart. She felt something was wrong with this attempt to get pass the gates. Looking through a telescope, she saw the two dragon statues the statue of Azulon was in between pulling up a pair of nets attached to his sleeves.

"Uh-oh," she gasped, seeing why they were called the Gates of Azulon now.

Fire then ignited on the nets and they were ablaze. This was the real Gates of Azulon.

"Oh, no," went Hakoda. "Everyone get below the deck!"

As the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe soldiers rushed past them, Yue told Sokka, "I hope this invention of yours does work."

"Oh, it'll work, Yue," Sokka told her. "Trust me."

"I trust you." She told him.

As they went below the deck of the ships, they were able to miss the sight of some Fire Nation jet skiers approaching. The soldiers boarded the ships, but found nobody aboard.

"We searched the whole ship," one of the soldiers informed his superior. "No one's here."

"Impossible," his superior responded. "Where'd they go?"

Unknown to the Fire Nation soldiers aboard the Water Tribe ships, five submarine-like vessels and the Flying Bison were traveling away under the Gates of Azulon and completing the first step in their invasion plan.

"Sokka, you really outdone yourself this time," Hakoda praised his son.

"Yeah, Sokka, congratulations," went Toph, sounding sick with her head down. "You've managed to invent a new way of travelling that's worse than flying."

Since The Duke was sitting next to her, he offered his helmet to her, which she accepted and threw up in it. It seemed that Toph was the only Earthbender in existence that felt the most vulnerable when separated from the ground.

Yue looked out the protective glass panels and saw the underwater world. To her, it was beautiful; she'd never been this close to the water like this in her life.

"How were you able to come up with an idea like this, Sokka?" She asked him.

"It actually came from one of my dad's ideas that he used earlier in the war," he answered her. "Tangle Mines…or, as he likes to call them, the "Stink and Sink"."

"Heh-heh-heh!" Yue laughed. "That's funny."

"But all I really did was draw the ideas up. It was the Mechanist that built them." Sokka added.

"Don't sell yourself short, Sokka," the Mechanist expressed. "It was still your idea to use Waterbending as a means to make the subs sink and float. It was a brilliant idea, although your original designs were a bit difficult to decipher in the beginning, I must confess."

Yue saw the original designs…and was accepting that it did seem hard to decipher: It looked like a giant fish with two people inside it.

"But there was one problem that I couldn't fix," the Mechanist expressed sadly. "The subs have a limited air supply. Before we land, we'll have to resurface."

Several minutes later, the subs resurfaced to replenish the air supply needed before they reach the beaches of the Fire Nation Capital. During the break, Yue saw some Earthbenders flexing their muscles, The Duke cleaning out his helmet of Toph's…leftovers, and Aang himself letting the warm breeze brush against him.

"I take it you're ready to let the ruler of the Fire Nation know that the Avatar himself has come back with a vengeance on behalf of the other three nations?" Yue asked Aang, and he turned around.

"Yeah," he answered. "I can't believe that today is the day, though."

"You'll do alright. You saved the Northern Water Tribe, and I'm still grateful. You saved the Moon Spirit and beat Zhao. I'm sure the Fire Lord will be no different when he loses his Firebending."

"Yeah. Good luck on the battlefield, Princess Yue."

"The same with you, Avatar Aang." Yue then allowed Aang to be alone while she went back into the sub they were on, but something made her poke her head out the top entrance, and she saw Aang talking to Katara.

"…We've been through so many things together, and I've seen you grow up so much. You're not that goofy, little kidthat I found in the iceberg, anymore. I guess…what I'm trying to say to you is…that I'm really proud of you." She heard Katara say to Aang.

"Everything will be different by the end of today, won't it?" He asked her. "But…what if…I don't come back in the end?"

_Oh, don't start to feel uncertain, Aang, _thought Yue.

"Aang, don't say that. Of course, you'll…" Katara told him, but she never got to finish when Yue saw Aang kiss her, much to both of their surprise.

Yue couldn't believe she was seeing this! She knew she was for certain that Aang was in love with somebody, but she never truly expected that love interest to be Katara herself. But back in Ba Sing Se, she saw how Aang glared at Zuko behind Katara's back and realized a truth that was always there for her to see, only she was looking at it more carefully this time. Now she knew the truth: Aang was in love with Katara!

When she saw the kiss end, Aang opened his glider and flew away.

_My gosh,_ Yue thought.

"Katara, what are you doing?" She then heard Sokka call out to his sister. "We're about to submerge!"

That broke her out of her daze and she climbed atop Appa's head.

"Here we go again," said Yue, as she climbed down into the sub as it went under the water once more.

-x-

"…But Water Tribe ships don't steer themselves," said a Fire Nation soldier to another soldier on the shore of the entrance to the Fire Nation Capital. "And there's no way that they could Waterbend from long distances."

"But Captain, we checked them from top to bottom," the soldier responded. "There was nobody aboard the ships."

Before the captain could utter another word of protest, the alarms went off to indicate that something was approaching the shore through the underwater defensive wall in between said shore and the Gates of Azulon.

"Get to your stations!" He ordered his men as he ran to his own post.

Five large objects rose out of the water and were revealed to be some sort of fish-like vehicle that could travel under the water.

"What are those?!" One of the soldiers gasped, just as the mysterious crafts opened up in the front…and five large, tank-like vehicles rolled on out of them, all bearing the Earth Kingdom insignia!

Within the tanks, several Earth Kingdom soldiers propelled them with Earthbending and assaulted the Fire Nation tanks with mere brute force, pushing them away or knocking them onto their sides.

Sokka led several Foggy Swamp Tribe soldiers and Waterbenders forward against the enemy, armed with shields and spears.

"Attack!" He yelled out, brandishing his sword in front of the nearest Fire Nation soldier that came with a sword.

It was at this time, Yue turned into the Lady of the Battlefield! She swung her sword and sliced in half an enemy soldier's spear, blocked a Firebending assault with her large shield, engraved with the Water Tribe insignia, and kicked another soldier in the face! Her Gentleman of the Battlefield wasn't far behind, blocking an opposing sword with his own and pushing back against the enemy. As Firebenders and regular foot soldiers surrounded them, they dispatched each one with swift movements and sword swings while blocking the flames with Yue's shield.

Katara saw them and was impressed by Yue's development; the Tribal Princess of the Northern Water Tribe wasn't the seemingly-weak little lady, anymore. She had become a strong woman due to her training and the travelling.

Several Firebenders were unable to deal in any blows to Appa, whose armor was persistent against their attacks. It was made of gold metal and leather that was painted orange to embrace the Air Nomad culture, the legacy of the element of freedom.

-x-

As the invasion continued on, the Avatar had reached the Fire Nation Capital ahead of them and landed atop a roof down the street from the Fire Nation Royal Palace, but for some reason, something wasn't right with the setting of the town around said palace. It was too quiet. Far too quiet, like it was empty or abandoned.

"That's strange," Aang told himself, as he jumped from the roof and approached the palace doors.

With a strong blast of air, the doors were blown open and Aang entered the palace with his staff brandished defensively.

"The Avatar is here!" He called out, ready for battle.

But as he looked around, no one was there to face him…or even see him.

"Hello?" He called out. "Hello? Anyone home?"

-x-

Even without his Firebending, Zuko was still a skilled swordsman, using his broadswords and dispatching his fellow Firebenders and countrymen alongside Jet, Longshot and Smellerbee.

"We have them on the run!" The voice of Haru's father, Tyro, yelled out as he Earthbended several chunks of stone at the retreating soldiers. "The Fire Nation is falling back!"

As the invasion advanced ever closer to the palace, they weren't without some minor casualties: Hakoda was injured during the disabling of several Fire Nation battlements, the Swampbenders stayed behind at the shores to watch the subs and make sure their enemies left behind were taken care of, leaving only regular Water Tribe warriors with regular Earth Kingdom soldiers and Earthbenders, and Bato, without warning, had been hit with an enemy arrow and had to stay behind, as well. But they were going to have the advantage needed to secure victory in this war. The eclipse was to start in less than hour and the Firebenders would be helpless without their bending and weapons that had been trashed or was being trashed.

SMACK! A Fire Nation soldier was knocked off his feet by Yue, who used her shield as a club.

"Sorry about that," she apologized to the unconscious soldiers and moved on. _Aang, we're almost to the palace to cheer you on. We're on our way to achieving victory._

-x-

BLAST! A drapery that acted as a door to the War Room/Throne Room of the palace was blown away by Aang and he stepped inside, assuming another defensive stance against a possible enemy. He had checked the entrance, a room with its own Agni Kai chamber, even several small bedrooms. But when he reached this room, expecting to find Ozai, he came to a startling conclusion when he saw how empty the place was as the other rooms were: The palace, the whole town itself…was desolate.

"No," he realized too late, dropping to the floor. "No, no, no! Fire Lord Ozai… WHERE ARE YOU?!"

-x-

_Forget 'Princess Yue',_ thought Zuko, seeing said Tribal Princess go through several regular Fire Nation soldiers like a fish flowing down a stream. _She should be called 'Warrior Princess Yue'._

The battle continued to wage on, favoring the side of the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom rather than the Fire Nation. But Yue's heart started to beat with an unsteady rhythm; it wasn't one of pain, but it made her feel out of place in the present, like something wasn't right. Once she blocked a Firebender's attack on her up front, she advanced further and rejoined Sokka and Jet.

"How long until the eclipse?" She asked Sokka.

"We still got a whole half hour," he answered. "We're doing good."

"I hope so. Something suddenly feels off about today, and it's not the approaching eclipse."

"Hey," went Jet, pointing to the sky, "is that Aang?"

They looked up and saw the Avatar flying toward them; they didn't think finding the Fire Lord and defeating him before the eclipse would be that easy for him. But once Aang landed in front of them, they saw a look of despair mixed with anger and loss; something had happened to him while he was looking for the Fire Lord.

"Oh, please, tell me that he decided to give in before you two fought?" Sokka asked him.

"He wasn't home," Aang responded. "No one was there. The entire palace city's abandoned."

Then Zuko, who heard of this, came to a realization.

"They knew," he revealed his realization to them.

"But how is that possible?" Yue wondered. "We didn't tell anyone… Long Feng!"

"Who?" Zuko asked.

"The former Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se. We tried to inform him of the eclipse, but he shot us down because he wanted to control the Earth King. And I have a strong feeling that the only reason the Fire Lord knew about the eclipse…is because Long Feng told Azula."

"Azula… She's always been manipulative."

"It's over, then," said Aang. "The Fire Lord's probably on some remote island where he can wait out the eclipse with some soldiers."

"No, I don't think he'd go that far," went Zuko, relying on information he learned from before he was banished from his country. "My great-grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin, had a bunker built during the early years of the war, just in case of invasions. My father would be there. He'd be able to wait out a siege and still be close to lead the nation."

"If it's an underground bunker we're looking for, I'm just the girl to find it," said Toph.

"What do you think, Aang?" Yue asked the Avatar.

"Yeah. We can still do this. We can still achieve victory and end the war." Aang decided.

"Wait a minute," Katara cut in. "If they knew, it could all be a trap. We should just take the time we have left and get away."

"But everyone here came today came prepared to risk everything," Sokka told his sister. "If there's still a chance of winning this war through the invasion, we have to take the risk."

"Whatever choice we make, it's gotta be now," said Yue.

-x-

High in the sky, Appa flew Aang, Yue, Sokka, Toph, Jet and Zuko toward a nearby active volcano that Zuko had learned about, prior to his banishment, that served as the locale for the Fire Lord's bunker.

When the Flying Bison landed against the side of it, Toph was the first to get off and feel the vibrations of the ground.

"Do you feel anything?" Sokka asked her.

"Yep," she answered, placing her hands on the ground. "There's natural tunnels crisscrossing through the inside of the volcano."

"How about anything to indicate a massive structure?" Zuko asked her.

"Your information's rock-hard," she told him. "There is something big, dense and made of metal at the heart of the volcano."

"Sounds like a secret bunker to me," said Sokka. "Let's do this."

Toph Earthbended a hole into the volcano and jumped in along with Jet and Zuko.

"Appa, you and Momo had best stay safe," Yue told the Flying Bison and Lemur. "See you in a bit."

Then the princess jumped in alongside Sokka.

"We gotta go this way," Toph told them, running down the part of the tunnel going the opposite way they were looking. "That way's a dead end."

"Toph, what would we do without you?" Sokka asked.

"Perish in the burning magma," Yue told him, seeing him flinch away from a small stream of said magma that flowed past them.

"Pretty much, Yue, yeah," he agreed.

They crossed vents of active lava, needing to be careful, precise, and lucky as they wanted to avoid getting incapacitated by the magma. But their journey to the bunker was halted by a river of lava…with the other end of the tunnel across it.

"You're kidding, right?" Sokka asked. "There's no floor."

"Aang, couldn't you and Toph bend a walkway?" Yue suggested; this was mostly because Sokka had told her of how Aang once saved a village in the Earth Kingdom from a volcano with his Airbending and how Toph was able to Earthbend them a path to the Earth King when they invaded his palace.

"Maybe," Aang replied.

"Here goes," agreed Toph, as she bended first, creating a lava-covered path of charred rock.

Aang used a strong gust of wind to cool the start of the path down.

Zuko tested the path and said, "How long until the eclipse, Sokka?"

Sokka took out the timer device the Mechanist gave him and checked the length of time they had left and responded with, "Ten minutes left. Let's get going."

Aang and Toph bended their way toward the other end of the lava river and they proceeded their way to the Fire Lord's bunker. They reached a massive door made of metal that had been built into the side of a large cavern.

"Whoa," went Yue, unsheathing her sword, "this is like the Earth King's palace allover again."

"That's some door," added Sokka.

"Not a problem," said Toph, as she Metalbended the massive structure open and led the way in.

"I am so glad we met her in Gaoling," Yue expressed. "Have I ever told you that it's a good thing you invented Metalbending?"

"You could stand to mention it a little," Toph returned the compliment.

They ran down a tunnel and met up with an elderly-but-still-fit Fire Nation man that Aang recognized as War Minister Qin.

"He's not a Firebender," said Zuko. "He's mine!"

Zuko took out his broadswords and raised them up as she charged toward Qin.

"Aaaahh!" Qin yelled, not expecting to see the banished prince here with the Avatar. "I surrender!"

Zuko pinned him against the wall as the others arrived and brandished their weapons at him; Toph even threatened his head with a large rock.

"Where's the Fire Lord?" Aang demanded.

"The Fire Lord's chamber is that way, down the hall to the left and up the stairs. You can't miss it," he confessed to them, having no choice if he valued his life.

They glared at him…until Aang smiled and said, "Thanks!" They then left him alone, but Yue returned to speak to him a little.

"I'm sorry about this, sir, but you're the enemy," she apologized…and then punched him in the face, knocking him out cold before she rejoined the others.

"Yue, I can't believe you just did that," Sokka told her.

"Yeah…I can't believe I just did that myself." She responded, flexing her knuckles. "Ow."

Sokka then took out the timer device and confirmed that they now had three minutes left until the eclipse started. When they reached a large pair of doors with the Fire Nation symbol on it, it seemed like it wasn't only the doors that were in their way between the Fire Lord and ending the war once and for all. It was hesitation.

"Well, Aang…we're here," Yue told the Avatar. "Are you up to it?"

"I'm ready," he sighed. "I'm ready to face the Fire Lord."

"Then, let's go greet him," Toph said, and busted the doors open, allowing them access to the large chamber, occupied by several beams of metal and lit by torches.

"It ends today!" Sokka expressed, but his eyes widened at the sight in front of him. "Huh?!"

Several feet from them, lounging on a throne…was Azula, looking just the way she did before Sokka struck her with his boomerang. But the only difference you could see in her were her eyes: They were like a fire that burned so cold, it chilled you to the bone. She looked at them, but her gaze was like that of an arrow; she wasn't looking at all of them…only one of them.

"So, she's still alive, I see?" She told them, referring to Yue, whom she had wanted to believe was dead for some time, but a feeling in the back of her head told her not to, that she shouldn't underestimate even one enemy's ability to avoid their premature end. "I had a good feeling I'd be seeing you here today. It doesn't matter, though. I've known about the invasion since before I returned home."

Zuko stepped up to her and asked, "Where's the Fire Lord, Azula?"

"What, you mean, I'm not good enough to face you?" Azula responded, sarcastically. "You're hurting my feelings."

"Hurt your feelings?" Yue asked, sounding offended. "I don't believe you have any left."

"Don't waste our time, Azula," added Sokka. "Tell us what we wanna know! You're powerless during this eclipse, so you're in no position to refuse."

"And stick to the truth!" Toph expressed. "I'll know you're lying!"

"Are you sure about that? I'm very good at lying." Azula told her, and then became expressionless. "I am a three-hundred-foot tall grey Armadillo Bear with red horns, spikes on the shell and pink wings."

"Okay," went Toph, "you're good, I'll admit it, but you oughta consider telling the truth, anyway."

She then bended a cone-shaped prison around the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation. But all that did was make Azula smirk, and then her prison shattered into pieces.

"How'd she do that?" Yue asked Zuko.

"No…idea," he answered, as Azula dusted off some dirt on her shoulders.

"When I left Ba Sing Se, I brought along some souvenirs," Azula told them, and then four unfamiliar men dressed identically in a uniform that they didn't like appeared in front of her. "Dai Li agents!"

"Oh, this ain't gonna be good," sighed Aang.

-x-

As the eclipse started, the Firebenders out and about in the Fire Nation Capital felt a slight tingle in the back of their heads, like a part of their existence was sealed away.

"Surrender peacefully and immediately, and we'll let you unscathed," said Tyro to some Firebending soldiers he got close enough to.

"We'll never surrender to the likes of you!" One of the soldiers responded, and started to Firebend, but only managed weak and pathetic fizzles of his once-adequate firepower. "Okay, we surrender!"

The Firebenders backed down; without their bending, they were incapable of protecting their capital or themselves from the invaders.

"So, that's the Fire Nation Royal Palace, huh?" Katara said, helping her father march to said palace. "We've come so far."

"Stay sharp," Hakoda told her. "It's not over yet."

Smellerbee, Longshot, The Duke and Pipsqueak had rounded up the disabled Firebenders and tied them up with chains and rocks; ropes were not an option because once the eclipse was over, they would burn free of such restraints.

"We rounded up the Firebenders, but I got my doubts on the number of soldiers that would be protecting the capital," said Smellerbee. "I was expecting there to be more than the ones we captured."

"It's almost like they still got one move to play, and they haven't used it yet," responded Bato.

-x-

Not even the Dai Li were a match for Yue and the others, but they certainly wasted four minutes of their eclipse time; as far as the enemy knew, the eclipse was supposed to be for only eight minutes, not three hours, and the invaders needed that time to bring about the end of the Fire Nation's reign.

"First, you betray your nation, and now you aid in the war for all the wrong reasons?" Yue asked one of the Dai Li agents she was beating with her footwork after he used his stone gloves against the combatants. "You Dai Li really make me sick!"

KICK! She kicked him so hard in the face that he ended up flying backwards and slamming onto the walls and groaning in agony at being beaten by a little girl that couldn't bend.

Azula, watching the fight from the throne, kept her eyes on Sokka, and they were full of malice. The boy that scarred her was able to handle his own against one of the Dai Li, whom, like his fellow Earthbenders, was a skilled warrior in the art of Earthbending. She hated how a non-bender could be so skilled against a bender that was competent. It was time to show the peasant that there was a pyramid structure of power and status in existence…and that he, like the rest of the Water Tribes, was at the very bottom, even lower than the Air Nomads.

_It's time to show this peasant the errors of his ways,_ she thought, getting up off the throne and running into the battle.

Zuko took notice of his sister getting off the throne and heading towards Sokka.

"Watch out, Sokka!" He yelled. "Behind you!"

Sokka turned and saw Azula coming toward him.

"Oh!" He gasped, and did a drop-kick at the same time she swung her left fist at him, knocking her to the ground.

"Urgh!" Azula grunted, getting back up. "You're going to wish you hadn't done that!"

From under her right hand's armored sleeve, an ornate blade, similar to the shuriken knives and throwing stars that Mai uses slipped into her hand and she charged him again.

Sokka raised his sword up and blocked the small blade, which, unlike the other pieces of metal that his sword had cut through in the earlier parts of the invasion, was a lot stronger and almost on equal ground with his blade. The princess stood her ground with the small blade, examining his fine sword, having never seen such a remarkable weapon. It fascinated her tastes; she wouldn't have minded a sword like his…and decided that when he was erased from existence, she would take his sword as her trophy of revenge.

"You're going to pay for what you did to me back in Ba Sing Se," she told him, and kicked him in the side with her right leg.

"Aaaurgh!" Sokka yelled in pain, pushing forward and making Azula back off; the kick hurt a lot due to his armor not being as durable as standard Fire Nation armor.

Once all four Dai Li agents were dealt with, Yue rushed over and clashed blades with Azula; it was now a battle between two different princesses, one of water and one of fire.

"You should've just gave up when I shot you down," Azula told Yue.

"Sorry, but then I wouldn't have been able to live with myself knowing that I left behind people that would suffer because of your nation's cruelty," Yue responded, applying pressure to her sword. "And who would want to die after having been saved from death twice in her life now?"

"I'll show you," Azula then tried to kick Yue in her head with her right foot, but the Tribal Princess blocked with her shield.

"Sorry, Princess Azula, but during the time I was on the mend, I got a crash curse in self-defense," Yue informed her, and kicked her in the waist with her left foot.

"Urgh!" Azula backed away and decided to evade. "If you want me, come and get me!"

She dodged the Tribal Princess and Zuko, ducked under Sokka and leapt over Aang and Jet, who gave chase after her. It was now seven minutes since the eclipse began…but Azula didn't know the full extent of the eclipse like they did.

-x-

What Bato said about the Fire Nation having one last move to play was more than right, but it just wasn't what the invaders were expecting. From far behind the giant walls of the crater the city was built inside of, five war balloons had ascended into the air of the dark sky.

"My own invention!" The Mechanist gasped. "Oh, this isn't good."

Before Teo could console his father about not being ashamed that the enemy still got a hold of a design they forced him to create, the invasion force saw something that seemed worse than the war balloons: An enormous airship with a fierce dragon motif as a form of decoration, with four identical airships following suit, giving a total of five of each. Five war balloons and five airships.

"Those…I didn't design," the Mechanist said, wondering how the Fire Nation were able to build those.

The airships, populated with dozens of highly-trained soldiers and disabled Firebenders, flew forward, heading toward the beach.

"They might destroy the subs!" Smellerbee told the others.

"I'll try and stop them with Appa," said Katara, and she climbed atop the Flying Bison and took to the air after the airships.

One of the soldiers of the airship on the far left saw the Flying Bison and threw a lit bomb toward it.

BOOM! It self-destructed right in front of Katara and Appa, but it didn't halt or stop them in the least, and they pressed on. Katara used some barrels of water to bring down the war balloons, but the airships, which were made of a dense, metal framework, were incapable of being brought down by her, no matter how much water she bended against them, so she didn't even try her luck against them.

"They're gonna get the subs," she uttered, and saw two of the five airships dropping bombs down toward the capital city, targeted at the invasion force. "Oh, no!"

She bended the water and managed to stop some of the bombs from hitting the ground, but not all of them. Several explosions were triggered and some damage to the capital buildings were made.

-x-

"…Oh," went Azula, hearing the sounds of explosions and feeling the vibrations of the surface above her head as she ran down the tunnel from her enemies. "It sounds like the Firebending's back on, and right on time, too."

As Zuko and Aang caught up with her, she attempted to Firebend, but what surprised her were that her fists weren't creating her blue flames to bend.

"Wrong, Azula," Zuko told her. "This solar eclipse lasts much longer than you think it does. It truly is the darkest day in Fire Nation history, so says the guy that thought up this invasion plan to end the war for good."

Things weren't looking well for the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation. If this eclipse did last longer than she had, originally, thought it would, then her Firebending was still disabled until the eclipse ended. But she wasn't going to give up so soon. Swish! She threw her small blade toward the Avatar and her brother and continued to flee.

Aang created a wall of wind and blocked the blade, sending it away and they pursued the princess.

"Whoa! Hold on, guys!" They heard Sokka yell out, as he, Jet, Yue and Toph caught up with them. "Azula's just playing with us. She's not even trying to win this battle."

"Oh, that's not true," Azula told him, sarcastically. "I'm giving it my all."

"Sokka's right," added Yue. "She's just trying to waste our time, waiting until the eclipse is over and the Fire Lord will be at full strength to face Aang, which is not what we want."

"We should just get going and find the Fire Lord before the eclipse ends," went Toph. "Lady Hothead isn't worth fighting with at all."

"Uh…right, I think your friends just said that," Azula told her, "and since you can't see, I guess I should tell you that I'm rolling my eyes."

"I'll roll your whole head!" Toph told her.

"She's just baiting us again," said Jet.

"So, what, we just ignore her?" Aang asked.

"Yeah," answered Zuko. "If she's here, Fire Lord Ozai can't be too far behind. Let's go."

They turned to leave, but Azula wasn't about to let them go for a minute.

"It's a trap," she said, sounding innocent. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

"Ignore!" Sokka waved her off dismissively.

Yue turned to glare at Azula; the payback for her near-death experience would have to wait until after the war had been won.

"Azula always lies," went Zuko, reminding himself of the days before he was banished that Azula always resorted to trickery and deception when he was younger.

"So, Sokka's your name, you filthy peasant," they heard Azula utter out. "You know, my favorite prisoner used to talk about you all the time."

That stopped both members of the Water Tribes cold. Just who was Azula talking about? Who was her favorite prisoner? Not many people knew Sokka.

"She was convinced that you would come and rescue her…but you never did because you were with that Water Tribe girl right next to you, and she, eventually, gave up on you." Azula added in, and it explained who she was talking about.

Sokka, unable to hold back a tear from his right eye, rushed at the fire princess with an enraged heart.

"Come and get it," she whispered.

But before Sokka could reach the princess, Yue moved faster than he did, grabbed Azula's wrists before she could hurl another blade and slammed her against a wall! Now it was Azula that was surprised to experience this action! The Tribal Princess had just come out of nowhere behind Sokka and had her pinned.

With a cold tone of her own, Yue demanded, "Where…is…Suki?"

-x-

The Foggy Swamp Tribe, having remained to stand guard over the submarines, used Waterbending to defend them from the falling bombs to the best of their abilities, but there was a limit to how long they could keep a large dome of water over their heads to block explosions.

Huu, having showed up some minutes after their invasion plan started because he was gathering a large amount of seaweed for his swamp monster disguise, had sacrificed the disguise to protect his fellow tribesmen from the falling bombs. Fortunately, the Fire Nation's airships were unable to land a blow on any of the five subs as they flew past the beach.

-x-

"Don't prolong the inevitable, Azula," Yue told her, after Toph had bended the rocks behind the wall to bind the princess of fire. "Where is Suki?"

Despite her awe at how the Tribal Princess had pinned her to the wall faster than she'd seen any of the other enemies moved, Azula kept her dark composure.

"Azula, you either tell, or we leave you stuck in the wall," Zuko told her, but his sister stayed quiet.

Aang and Jet, who had left to find Ozai and defeat him before the eclipse was over, had Azula a tad bit curious as to how they'd find the Fire Lord and face him.

Yue looked at Azula's face and was reminded that Sokka had used his boomerang to injure her, but couldn't see any scars on her vile face.

"It's pretty interesting that somebody like you that was hit in the face makes a complete recovery in the time between the Earth Kingdom's takeover by the Fire Nation and the invasion into the Fire Nation," she told her. "I wonder how your medical teachings helped you with that, since there aren't any Waterbenders that specialize in healing in the Fire Nation."

"It was mostly hatred," Azula spoke up.

"There is an old saying about hate and anger: _"__Let them consume you…and you lose sight of everything"_. I've seen the way you Firebend, and it looks like all you do is hate and hate and hate some more. Is that why the war started one-hundred years ago? Was it all out of hatred? If so, it's saddening."

Azula gave a slight frown; what would a girl like this one from a land of snow and ice know of war instigations and such sensitive matters?

"Yue, it was Fire Lord Sozin that started the war," Zuko told her. "He had the whole idea of expanding the nation back in his day. I grew up being told that the Fire Nation's the greatest civilization in the history of the Four Nations, and that this war was just our way of sharing its greatness with the world. Heh, what an amazing lie that turned out to be, huh, Azula? And yet, we both see the truth for what it really is: People don't see the greatness of the Fire Nation. We're not sharing anything with the world. They despise us for this war…and we deserve it, and that's why it must end."

In the meantime, Aang and Jet had found another bunker of metal that looked guarded, but with minor defense; the guards seemed like regular foot soldiers.

"Let's get 'em," said Jet, and he and Aang charged toward the guards.

The two Fire Nation guards noticed them, but didn't have time to counter as they were swept off their feet by a strong gust of wind and blown against the wall, knocking them out. The Avatar then Earthbended ground around the guards to form restraints to keep them at bay until the Fire Lord had been defeated.

"Okay, let's end this," Jet said, and kicked the doors opened, allowing unhindered access to the Fire Lord's bunker.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Aang heard the Fire Lord question, sitting behind a table, unable to enjoy a cup of tea.

"Your days of tyranny are over, Fire Lord Ozai," Aang told him, brandishing his staff toward him. "Surrender immediately or suffer the consequences."

"What he said," added Jet, brandishing his hook swords. "This war has gone on for far too long."

"My sentiments, exactly," Ozai told them, and tossed an explosive at them, and it was lit to explode!

"Oh!" Aang gasped, and he and Jet dodged before it exploded.

Even without his bending, Ozai was unwilling to surrender, not when the arrival of Sozin's Comet was in two months' time and preparation for the end of the war in his favor were underway. This is why he armed himself with explosives and a candle, a poor substitute for Firebending, but it would be sufficient enough to defend himself from the Avatar.

"Generations of Fire Lords have searched for you, and yet the universe delivers you to me as an act of providence," he told Aang.

As the smoke cleared away, Aang Airbended another strong gust of wind and blew the Fire Lord's candle out; now he couldn't light any more explosives.

"Just how did someone like you end up as the Fire Lord?" Aang asked, more for his curiosity than for his edification. "I got a lot of information from Zuko, and much of the Fire Nation's Royal Family Tree states that the position is passed down from father to eldest child, often a son. So, it is Iroh of the Fire Nation that should be Fire Lord, not you, as you're younger than he is."

"You'd actually believe the words and knowledge of a traitor and failure?"

"A traitor, Zuko isn't, nor is he a failure…unlike you."

Aang had to disagree with Ozai about everything Zuko was and wasn't. Personally, the Air Nomad thought of Zuko as a tough Firebender…who got this way through hard work. Every time they fought, it seemed as though the banished prince had progressed in his training, such to the point where he was able to defeat Zhao in an Agni Kai. Even without his bending, Zuko was resourceful, unlike Ozai, who had resorted to a weak attempt at some fake Firebending by means of explosives.

"Do you really want to know how I became the Fire Lord?" Ozai asked him.

"Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Aang responded.

"Very well, then," Ozai gave in, since his only source of fire had been blown out and he was defenseless. "My father, Fire Lord Azulon, had ordered me to do the unthinkable to Prince Zuko, my own son…and I was going to do it. His mother, Princess Ursa, had found out and swore to protect him at any cost. She knew I wanted the throne more than my brother, and she devised a plan in which I would become the Fire Lord…and Zuko's life would be spared."

Aang's grip on his staff loosened a little.

"She stabbed him in his sleep," Ozai revealed the death of his father. "This was seen as a treasonous act. She knew the consequences for going against the Fire Nation, and she accepted them. For her treason, she was banished from the Fire Nation, never to return."

_But Zuko said that his mother died a long time ago,_ thought Aang, but then he realized that maybe that's what Zuko lead himself to believe because he didn't know what really happened to her, only that his grandfather had died the same night she disappeared. "So, like your own son, you banished your wife, just because she was against something that wasn't right?"

"Yes. It's interesting, talking with you, Avatar. It helps to see that banishment is far too merciful a penalty to any that perform acts of treason, and just like your end, Zuko's penalty will be far steeper."

Somehow, Aang didn't like the sound of confidence in Ozai's voice…and was proved right! The Fire Lord moved his arms in speeding, circular motion and fired a stream of what Aang perceived as blue fire, but realized much too late that it was lightning right at him!

"Aang!" Jet screamed, as the lightning attack made contact with the Avatar.

Aang, despite the Fire Lord's surprise attack (and ability to Firebend during an eclipse, as well), had caught the lightning and, despite his inexperience in the art, managed to send it back toward Ozai, but aimed it low at his feet, sending him flying back against the wall. The day before the invasion, Zuko, after realizing that there was a skill he could teach Aang that didn't require a means of force, taught Aang the technique that Iroh taught him, which was how to redirect lightning attacks. Aang couldn't believe that he had managed to pull a skill he learned just yesterday off and survive its effects. While it was a precautionary teaching, in the unlikely event that he would have to face somebody that knew how to generate lightning, it was still a good thing he learned the skill.

"Grrr!" He heard Ozai growl as he got back up, arms holding small balls of fire.

"No way!" Jet gasped, holding up his hook swords. "He can bend during an eclipse?!"

"It must because we're in a volcano," said Aang, picking up his fallen staff. "He's near a source of Firebending power so he can still bend, but it takes a lot outta him."

Ozai then shot fireballs at them, but Aang used Earthbending to raise the ground in front of them up and block the them.

"The eclipse was supposed to disable everyone's Firebending," Jet uttered. "This is like cheating."

"And is different from what I had pictured earlier. We better run while we still can."

True to Aang's words, Fire Lord Ozai lost a lot of energy just to Firebend due to being near a source of power, but he didn't lose too much energy. His years of training had made him much stronger than his father had been in his prime, making him an unrivaled Firebending Master. As the Avatar and his companion escaped, he followed suit, wanting to put an end to the Fire Nation's only real threat to global domination. He had expected the Avatar to be much stronger than usual, but he suspected that, due to being an Air Nomad, a bender of the most defensive element, it was only natural for this incarnation of the planet's spirit to be such a weakling. Weaklings were always unfit to live in the new world order.

-x-

"…You try our patience, Azula," said Zuko, after Toph had buried all but the Crown Princess' head into the wall. "Tell us what we wanna know or else."

But Azula stayed quiet; as long as they were here and unable to assist the Avatar against the Fire Lord, she'd be wasting their time until the eclipse was over.

"Your sister's worse than Zhao ever was," said Sokka, but then became curious of something. "Say, whatever happened to him, anyway? Haven't heard of him ever since we saw you in Omashu."

Azula raise her head up and said, "The Fire Lord doesn't tolerate many failures. Such failures have a consequence that must be dealt with. In fact, I took care of such a consequence before I left to Omashu. Zhao lacked control over power, he was imperfect."

Hearing that made Yue assume the worst.

"You…killed him, didn't you?" She asked her.

Before Azula could even say another word, they heard Jet and Aang running back their way.

"…This eclipse isn't working on the Fire Lord!" Jet yelled out. "He can still Firebend!"

"What?!" Sokka gasped; he didn't believe that was possible, as all the Firebenders should've been disabled due to the eclipse. "No way!"

Yue looked further down the tunnel and saw the Fire Lord for the first time in person…and was quite impressed that the leader of the Fire Nation was no different from Zhao in terms of expressing himself through the destruction he caused and the fear he evoked. The guy was a monster in his own right.

"He's still bending, Sokka," she told him, and grabbed him by his left shoulder and ran off with the others as the Fire Lord came after them, apparently ignoring the plight of his daughter being stuck to the wall.

Toph bended a wall behind them to buy them some time to escape.

"How can he still bend?" She asked.

"Aang believes it's due to the volcano," explained Jet. "Maybe because he's the Fire Lord, he's much more in sync with his element than the rest of the nation is."

"Either way, we can't beat him with what we have," Aang sighed. "I should've brought some water with me, freeze his arms and legs so that he couldn't bend."

"That's if he doesn't know how to bend through his mouth," went Zuko, having also explained that Ozai might've tried to learn Iroh's Breath of Fire technique that earned him his title the Dragon of the West, which would've given him an edge if he couldn't use his limbs.

BOOM! They heard an explosion behind them and knew that Ozai was catching up.

Yue turned around and saw the Fire Lord approaching like Azula had against Aang back in the Crystal Catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se; he was flying so fast on his flames.

"Oh!" She gasped, raising her hands up, and a sudden gust of wind manifested and was sent toward the Fire Nation's leader.

"Aaaurgh!" Ozai grunted and fell to the ground.

-x-

"…We don't have a lot of time left," said the Mechanist to Katara and Teo. "The eclipse will be ending in the next ten minutes."

Tyro had suggested that, since the Fire Nation's airships were taking a while to turn around, they should use that time to make their getaway before the Firebenders returned to full strength and they'd be defeated and captured.

"We can't leave without Aang and the others," said Smellerbee, and then, as if by magic, the Avatar and the others had returned, bearing bad news.

"This is bad," said The Duke. "What do we do now?"

"We win some, we lose some," said Zuko to them, "but if we flee…we live to fight another day."

"Live today, live to fight another day," Sokka agreed.

The invasion force retreated to the submarines while the Gaang got on Appa and flew away from the Fire Nation Capital, just in time to see Fire Lord Ozai roaring in anger over their fleeing. It looked as though the Fire Lord had used up a large amount of his energy that he lacked the breath to continue, even if the eclipse ended.

"I can't believe we messed up," Sokka sighed.

"We didn't mess up," went Yue. "We didn't expect the enemy to know that we were coming."

As Katara looked up at the sun, she saw the moon, which had been darkened by the power of said sun, moving away to allow light to shine upon the world. The solar eclipse, their edge of the invasion, had ended, and now the Fire Nation was back at full strength with its bending restored.

"Grrrr…" Appa grunted.

"Brrr…" Momo chattered and climbed atop Yue's shoulder with a sad expression.

"Now, what do we do?" Toph asked, concerned about only one new course: Where were they going?

"I think I know a place where we'll all be safe for a little while: The Western Air Temple."

Zuko's eyes widened to the sound of said temple. It had been a long time since he'd gone back to where his former quest to find the Avatar had begun.

"Then, we should get there soon," he agreed with Aang.

Yue looked at her hands and thought about something that had happened just before they had escaped Fire Lord Ozai's wrath; when that gust of wind came and halted the Firebender, she took notice that Aang was too far away to have done so himself…and wondered if anyone saw anything unusual being committed beforehand. Something had happened to cause the wind to do that in the tunnel, but she was unsure of what…or who…could've done so.

Sokka and Jet looked at her and then at each other; the Tribal Princess was unaware of what they were thinking, but had thought the same thing: _It wasn't Aang that made that gust of wind back in the tunnel._

"Grrr," Appa growled again as he flew west toward the once-proud locale of the Western Air Nomads that once thrived there.

A/N: Finally finished with this chapter! I'm sorry I took so long. Real life's a major distraction in one's creative life of make believe. After what's encountered in this chapter, you're probably wondering many things about what's to happen. If you look at the other chapters, you'll find some hints of the future yet to come. It may take longer to cook up the next chapter, but it'll come in due time. Please, have patience. By the way, it was stated on the Avatar Wiki that Firebenders could also bend due to being near other heat sources, but it was never shown in the series. This is why Ozai is shown bending here, but it takes too much energy to do so without the aid of the sun. Well, read and review and I'll get back to you soon. Peace!


	16. The Princess & Temple of Hidden Secrets

Creation began on 10-05-11

Creation ended on 10-30-11

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Temple of Hidden Secrets

A/N: Ah, this is gonna get exciting here. Some questions are going to get answers…and another piece of hope shall be given. Here goes!

The sun was high and the humidity was terrible. It would've been bad enough for just the Gaang, but they were in the company of the former invasion force as they headed toward the location of the Western Air Temple.

"This is so humiliating and depressing," uttered Katara.

"What, that we got thoroughly beat down by the Fire Nation because the Fire Lord could still bend, despite the eclipse, or that we have to walk to the Western Air Temple?" Sokka asked her.

"Both, really," she expressed.

"I'm sorry, guys, but Appa gets tired easily by carrying so many of us now," Aang apologized…and scratched above said Flying Bison's left eye.

"I hate this heat," said The Duke.

"I hate having to run away from a battle," added Jet.

"I hate the blisters on my feet," said Sokka.

"I hate feeling like I've failed to accomplish some great good," expressed Yue.

Then, their sole blind Earthbending Master halted their journey with, "Hey! We're here. I can feel it!"

The people looked in front of them, but all they saw was the edge of a large cliff with mist all around its structure. There was no mountain temple to be seen.

"Toph, I think your feet need to be checked," suggested Smellerbee, disbelieving that they had reached the temple for shelter.

"No, she's right," said Zuko to her, stepping closer to the edge. "This is where the temple is. It's not situated on a mountain. The Air Nomads that used to live here…had it built under the cliff."

"What?" Chief Hakoda responded in awe, and he and the other members of the invasion force went toward the edge to look down.

"Wow…" Yue reacted. "Aang, you never said that the temple was this amazing."

Using ropes, Airbending and Earthbending, the people traveled to the Western Air Temple and saw how it was structured: It looked like it had been built poorly, but when you looked at it upside-down, you could see that the Air Nomads had built their home like this purposely to make it look unnoticeable to those that were passing by. There were trees, tower spires, some statues, murals on the walls, and a large fountain shaped like an hourglass with water flowing out. The temple must have ran along the entire cliff!

"Wow," went Teo as he and his father looked up at the temple ceilings. "It's so different from the Northern Air Temple. It's…I don't know…got less happening."

"It doesn't look like this place suffered much damage in the one-hundred years of war," went Haru.

Yue examined one of the statues that was left intact and looked behind it and saw something: It appeared to be a staff, not too different from Aang's, but its design seemed too crude. She picked it up, but it broke apart out of her hands, revealing a large pair of orange wings, similar to Aang's glider. But they were ripped and not as thick in texture as Aang's.

"I wonder…" She told herself and picked it up again to take to the Mechanist for his knowledge on the glider, since he'd been known to reverse-engineer the Air Nomads' gliders after he had colonized the Northern Air Temple with Earth Kingdom refugees.

As she ran off to find the Mechanist, Aang, Zuko and the others of the Gaang were trying to figure out what the new plan of action was going to be.

"If you ask me," went Sokka, "the new plan is our old plan: Aang just needs to master all the elements in time to face the Fire Lord before Sozin's Comet arrives by summer's end."

"Two problems with that plan," said Zuko to him. "One, I still can't Firebend, and two, we don't know where to find any who are willing to teach Aang and aren't affiliated with the Fire Nation's goal to rule the world."

"Couldn't we try looking for your uncle?" Katara suggested. "I mean, if he was captured, he'd be taken to a prison close to the Fire Lord's palace, right?"

"I doubt he's even there, anymore," Zuko told her. "If the Fire Nation Capital was expecting us to arrive before the eclipse even started, the entire island would've been evacuated, prisoners included."

"What about trying to find Jeong Jeong?" Sokka suggested.

"Right, like we'll ever run into him again," said Aang.

"Surely, there's somebody," went Jet, who then had to bring up something that he and Sokka took notice of back in the Fire Nation during the invasion. "Aang, when we were getting away from the Fire Lord, he was halted by that gust of wind, do you remember that?"

"Yeah, why?" Aang asked him.

"Do you recall Airbending to keep him at bay when we fled?"

The Air Nomad recalled the time they were in the tunnel, but pronounced, "No. And I couldn't have made a gust of wind that strong. I'd have to be closer to the Fire Lord to do such an act."

"What are you talking about?" Katara asked Jet.

"When we were looking for the Fire Lord, and then running from because he could still bend, he was knocked to the ground by a gust of wind," explained Sokka. "Aang was too far ahead of us to Airbend without us getting hurt. But there was one person that was close enough to the Fire Lord when he was knocked down."

Sokka didn't want to jump to conclusions or point the finger, but he couldn't deny what he saw back in the tunnel, and what he saw was unmistakable.

"Who was close enough to my father when he was knocked away?" Zuko asked, having never paid attention to the scene due to wanting to live to fight another day.

"It was Yue," answered Toph. "She was the only one of us that was closest to the Fire Lord. Aang was farthest away, but she was closest."

Katara was a bit skeptical at what she was hearing. It was very unlikely, too.

"Sokka," she started, "you honestly expect me to believe that you, Jet and Toph suspect…that it was Yue that went and Airbended a gust of wind to keep the Fire Lord at bay while you made your escape? That's crazy."

"No, it isn't," Jet countered. "Remember what Yue said the day before the invasion? She suggested that it wasn't entirely possible that all the Air Nomads were wiped out, that some of them survived the genocidal assault orchestrated by Fire Lord Sozin and stayed hidden. She even suggested that some of the Air Nomads may have had descendants…and maybe…just maybe…we've met one."

"But…how is that possible?" Aang questioned; he wanted to believe that there were some descendants of his nation alive, but it seemed difficult to believe at the moment.

-x-

"…Hmm… Well, judging by the crude effort in constructing this glider," went the Mechanist, as he was examining the glider that Yue had found, "and given the approximate age… This wasn't made too long ago. Quite possibly, it was built just two years ago."

"So, then…that could mean that… It's possible that whoever made this…is still around?" Yue asked.

"Another Airbender?" Teo questioned. "How is that possible? Excluding Aang, shouldn't they all be dead and history?"

Yue walked away from to process this new information. If it was true, then there were some Air Nomads still around in hiding, making Aang not the last of his kind. She walked past a mural that looked like it was dedicated to a female Air Nomad from the past who was an Avatar, but beside her was another female Air Nomad that had a something around her neck that didn't look like it was of Air Nomad culture. She stopped and looked at it and thought for a moment that she'd seen that object somewhere before.

_If this paint's authentic, I could almost say that the thing around her neck…is one of those betrothal necklaces from the Water Tribes,_ she thought, but looked more closely at the painting. _What the heck? That looks exactly like a betrothal necklace from the Water Tribes!_

She backed away from the mural and continued walking down the pathway.

-x-

"Say, Aang," went Zuko, trying to hold off on speaking to Yue about the possibility of what the others had discovered, looking at some of the statues of past Avatars, "who was this Air Nomad before you, after this Fire Nation Avatar before Roku?"

Aang looked over at the statue of the female Air Nomad and answered, "That's Avatar Yangchen."

"That's odd, I saw a statue similar to hers further down a hall, but the name under it said _Sister Eli_. They looked alike, but this Sister Eli's face seemed…saddened." Zuko expressed, and Aang wondered why this was so.

"Could you show me this statue?" He asked him.

The banished prince led him to the small room that held the statue of the Air Nomad and the Avatar saw that she looked nearly identical to Yangchen, but her face was expressing a sadness of some sort.

"Hmm…there are some words engraved upon the base of the statue," he discovered, and began to read the language. "_'Sister Eli, elder twin sister of Avatar Yangchen. The only one who ever felt disgraced by her sister's actions against others to preserve peace and justice in the world. She could no longer stand by and know that her sister, simply because she was the only one of our generation that could do so, disgrace our culture by doing whatever it took to ensure balance between the Four Nations was preserved. Sister Eli left the Western Air Temple of her and her sister's birth and traveled north to get away from such tarnishing of their sacred culture. "I shall travel to the land of the flowing element of change after our evasive element of freedom and find my redemption for what my sister has done", she was last heard saying before she left. Sister Eli shall be remembered always as Avatar Yangchen's twin…but also as the only one to willingly blur two of the nations.'_"

"So, the Air Nomad Avatar before you had an older twin…and she felt that her sister had disgraced their culture?" Zuko wondered. "I never heard of any Avatars having any other relation besides their parents, whom were never heard of or spoken about."

"It's part of my culture for Air Nomads to be detached from worldly concerns, even detachment from our parents. We're simply born and raised in whichever temple we're closest to, and that's that," said Aang to him. "I've never knew of an Air Nomad that was upset about whatever it was that their brother or sister had done."

"Well, judging from what was written, whatever Avatar Yangchen had done in her life, it was enough to make Sister Eli leave the Air Nomads and…blur two of the nations, whatever it was that she did after she went and left."

Aang looked at the statue's head again and noticed something around the neck area; it looked like Katara's mother necklace, which might have meant something to the part of the message that was written: _'Blur two of the nations'_.

-x-

The night of the failed invasion of the Fire Nation was very quiet. Not just because many of the people were eating at the Western Air Temple, but due to the heavy silence of the night. Of course, rice and cabbage weren't a good choice of a meal, either.

"Hey, has anybody seen Yue?" Sokka asked.

"I haven't seen her in the last two hours," Katara responded.

"She went exploring the temple," Toph explained. "There are several good spots to practice Earthbending or just to hide around."

Then Sokka got up to go look for her, since she was, by all means, his girlfriend.

"Yue!" He called out to her as he walked down a long hall. "Yue!"

His voiced echoed across the hall…until he received a response.

"Sokka…" A voice echoed back, and he ran toward the source.

-x-

Yue was sitting by herself near the edge of one of the temple's towers, looking down at the deep darkness and grey mist. She needed to be alone and process all that she had seen and heard. As the sun had gone down and the moon had shone its light on the Western Air Temple, Yue, against the rumbling of her stomach, stayed where she was seated and looked down at the darkness that seemed even the moon itself couldn't illuminate.

"Yue," she heard Sokka as he showed up. "Everybody's eating. I got worried about you."

She looked up at him and gave a small smile.

"I'm sorry. I had spoken with the Mechanist earlier and he told me something I've yet to share with the others about what I found earlier. Sokka, would you believe me if I were to say that I don't believe the Air Nomads are gone?"

"After everything else that's happened this past year with all the traveling I never thought I'd do, I'm willing to believe that even the spirits have done things to help the world in their own way." He told her. "Yue, there's something I believe you need to know."

"What is it?" She asked him.

"You see, Jet, Toph and I… We think that… We think that you can bend air," he confessed, waiting for her response.

"Me? Bend air? How is that possible? I was born and raised in the North Pole, not an Air Temple."

"Well, did you have any other relatives back in the North Pole that were around from one-hundred years prior to the war?"

The Tribal Princess explored her childhood, but couldn't recall anyone significant to her background outside her parents.

"There wasn't anybody else, Sokka," she told him. "May I ask why you think I can Airbend?"

"It was while we were running from the Fire Lord. A gust of wind came and blew him off his feet…but Aang was too far away to have done so, so…we just believe that it was you that did it, since you were the closest to the Fire Lord." He explained.

Yue wanted to deny her boyfriend's claim that she was capable of Airbending; she had been very young when her parents confirmed that it was highly unlikely that their daughter had any bending capabilities. She never felt truly connected to the water as she had been to the Moon Spirit prior to the siege months before. But the possibility of being an Airbender instead of a Waterbender? Personally right now, she wouldn't have minded being able to perform both abilities if it were true, but she couldn't believe it, not even after seeing the murals.

"Sokka, look over the ledge, please," she told him, and he did just that. "What do you see and hear?"

"All I see is the mist and I hear nothing," he answered her. "Did you see or hear something down there earlier before I showed up?"

"No…but a thought came to mind: This is the Western Air Temple, which is just these buildings that were made a long time ago under this cliff, so it's possible that nobody has ever traveled below the temple before…and…maybe…" She stayed silent for a little while after that.

"Maybe, what, Yue?" He asked her, sitting next to her. "Maybe, what?"

"That the Fire Nation didn't get rid of all the Air Nomads after all. You see, earlier today, I found this glider that looked like the one Aang has, but was crudely built. I took it to the Mechanist and he examined it, and then he told me that it's highly possible that it was built no more than two years ago, meaning that somebody's been living here before we arrived. Quite possibly an Air Nomad."

Sokka couldn't turn this possibility down, even if Zuko said that when he started his search for Aang three years ago, this temple was where he started off at after he was scarred and banished. It was because of the idea that the Fire Nation and Zuko, back when he was an enemy, never thought to travel below the temple. Maybe some Airbenders did escape the genocidal assault one-hundred years ago.

"Let's go down there tomorrow, Yue," he suggested.

"What?" She asked him, thinking she heard wrong.

"Tomorrow. We go down and see for ourselves. I want to believe that there are more Airbenders left in existence and the once-powerful nation isn't reduced to just our friend, the Avatar. What do you say?"

-x-

The next day, as some Water Tribe warriors went back the way they came to the island the temple was on to keep watch over the submarines, Aang was looking for Sokka and Yue, but couldn't find them anywhere.

"Where did they run off to in such a hurry this morning?" He wondered.

"Probably to explore the rest of the temple," Haru suggested, eating a bowl of steamed rice. "It's not like they could really go anywhere else for the moment while we're still working on a comeback strategy of sorts against the Fire Nation before the comet arrives."

"Yeah, that's true, but much of the things I know about the temple from one-hundred years ago was what still is present: A giant Pai Sho table in on of the rooms, the all-day echo chamber and the obstacle course and racetrack for the Flying Bison. Other than those, there's not much else to see around here…other than the fountain and the metal doors that serve as shields in case of an attack."

"Hey," went The Duke as he showed up after looking at some of the statues around the temple and sat in front of them. "Do you guys know why Sokka and Princess Yue had some rope with them when they left earlier this morning?"

"They had some rope with them?" Aang asked, not knowing what this was about.

-x-

Triple-knotting the ropes they took and securing one end to a statue, the Southern Water Tribe boy and the Northern Water Tribe girl were making their descent down from the Air Temple and into the misty underbelly it was built over. This, to Yue, was like a leap of faith. Faith that what she saw and heard yesterday were true. To Sokka, this could help to explain a few things, like why Yue could Airbend (he was certain that she could).

"Wait, Sokka," Yue halted their descent, "we don't know how far down we're going."

"Don't worry," he assured her, and took out a small pouch full of stones. "I brought these along to throw down so that I was sure we brought enough rope."

He took out a stone and tossed it down. It made a small series of sounds before it stopped.

"It doesn't sound like the bottom is too far down. Shall we press on?" He asked her.

"Yeah," she agreed.

Suddenly, their rope, which had gone further down through the misty terrain than they did, tightened.

"Huh?!" Yue gasped. "Uh, Sokka?"

Their rope felt like it was…like it was being manipulated from beneath them.

"What in the world?" Sokka reacted.

SNAP! Their rope above their heads snapped…and they fell from the safety of it!

"Aaaaugh!" They screamed.

"Sokka!"

"Yue!"

"I'm sorry!"

They fell. They fell forever. What felt like hours had past before they lost consciousness and were wrapped in darkness.

GASP! Yue shuddered as she came to, finding herself somewhere that seemed like a dream of sorts. The room she was in seemed like the one…that Aang described for her that he once had back at the Southern Air Temple.

"What?" She wondered, but then realized that Sokka wasn't around. "Sokka?"

She got off the ground and ran out the door of the room, seeing a tunnel that led two different ways: Right and left. She chose left to start off looking for her boyfriend. In less than two minutes, she came to a fork in the tunnel.

"Sokka!" She called out for him. "Sokka!"

-x-

"…Yeah, they definitely went down into the chasms," said Aang, having rounded up the others to the statue that served as the line base for the ropes Sokka and Yue took.

"But why would they wanna go down there?" Katara asked.

"I never went down there when I came here three years ago," Zuko stated. "Never believed that there were any Air Nomads down there."

"The only way we'll know for certain…is if we go down there ourselves," said Toph.

-x-

"Why did I let Sokka talk me into this?" Yue wondered as she took the right path. "Sokka! Where are you?!"

She was about to give up and cry…when the universe gave her motivation to continue.

"…Yue!" She heard somebody call back. "Yue!"

She followed the voice and found another structure that echoed that of the Air Temple. She broke open the door that was closed and saw a grand sight that she wouldn't forget for years to come: Her boyfriend, with his right arm bandaged, and several young men around him that were dressed in yellow, orange and brown robes.

"Am I dreaming?" She asked them, pointing toward the men in robes. "Are they who I think they are?"

One of them went over to her and offered a hand.

"It…really depends on who you think we are," he told her, and she accepted his hand.

"Well…are you guys…Air Nomads?" She asked him.

The man raised his left hand…and a small tornado was conjured up for a little while before dissipating, making Yue's eyes widen at the feat that served as proof of so much more.

"Are there…others?" Yue asked.

"Hey, she's awake!" She turned around and saw a little girl behind her, dressed in the same manner that Aang was when she saw him for the first time.

"Oh! Uh, hello," Yue greeted the young girl, and noticed that she, like the men she encountered down here, did not have any arrows tattooed on her head or hands.

Once Sokka filled her in on what happened, that they had fell on a safety net after being suspended in the air by seven of the Air Nomads that were keeping watch for intruders for two hours, as well as having his arm mended enough to show Yue around the place, which the people referred to as the Western Underground Temple, the Air Temple beneath the Air Temple, Yue became excited to know that what they were looking for was now fact.

"But…why don't they possess the same tattoos as Aang?" She asked him.

"While many of them are capable of varying degrees of Airbending, they never achieved total mastery over their element," Sokka explained, leading her down to a large chamber where Yue saw another grand sight: A large, round chamber with at least seventy Flying Bison…and over a dozen or so Flying Lemurs that would give Appa and Momo good company. "They were all able to survive down here because the Fire Nation thought that their temple was just where we found it yesterday. They go up to the Western Air Temple every once in a while, but they never stay too long; after the Fire Nation attacked one-hundred years ago, they became cautious. These are the descendants of the Air Nomads from the Nothern and Western Air Temples that were able to get away."

Yue sat down on the edge of the ledge that stopped some feet within the large chamber and a lemur flew over to her and licked her cheeks.

"Eh-heh-heh!" She giggled. "Do they know about Aang?"

"I told them, and they're hoping that he, since he was born over a century ago, can help them with their problems, since he is the Avatar. They're looking forward to meeting him when we go back up. And Yue, they revealed something to me that relates to you."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. One of the older monks, a survivor from the first attacks against the Northern Air Temple, examined you while you were unconscious and said that you have some Air Nomad ancestry in your heritage, which means you can bend air…with practice, of course."

"Did this monk say who could've been a part of my family years ago?" She asked him.

"He believes it's due to an old prophecy made over three-hundred years ago," he expressed. "Something about one of the Air Nomads from the Western Air Temple, back in the time of the Avatar known as Yangchen, having left to the Northern Water Tribe to find her redemption."

"Avatar Yangchen? She must've been the woman I saw in one of my dreams when I was unconscious for five days after Azula shot me with lightning, the one that reminded me of Aang. She was dressed in the same manner as the other Air Nomads were."

"Their prophecy stated that in the future, when balance between the nations was devastated, one who is a distant relative of Yangchen, but not part of Air Nomad society, would come to assist in restoring the world. Yue, it states that someone who is a distant relation to Yangchen. One of the Air Nomads from her time must've traveled from the Western Air Temple to the North Pole…and decided to stay there. They might've stayed, had a family in the Northern Water Tribe, and not many people knew about it enough to leave a record."

"And they believe that I might be the distant relative of Yangchen?"

"Not in a great-great-great-granddaughter-type sense, Yue. One of the murals back at the temple revealed that Yangchen had an older twin sister, Sister Eli, and that she was the one that left to the Northern Water Tribe. They believe you're her descendant and because of that, you can Airbend."

Yue then picked up the lemur and held it in front of her.

"I saw a mural back at the temple," she told him. "I thought I saw a Water Tribe necklace on an Air Nomad's neck. I guess I saw this Sister Eli."

"Blessed by the Moon Spirit…and blessed by the Sky Bison," they both turned around and saw a little pudgy boy, carrying a basket of apples; he couldn't have been more than The Duke's age.

"Blessed by the Moon Spirit and the Sky Bison?" Sokka questioned. "You mean…what, that Yue could Waterbend as well as Airbend?"

The boy nodded in the positive, and that made Yue even more uncertain of what these Air Nomads believed of her abilities. She was okay with the prowess of a warrior of the sword and shield because she could show that she was skilled in such arts, but bending was an art she couldn't achieve. She could never Waterbend in her childhood, not even the art of healing that was only taught to women back home, and the idea of being able to bend Aang's cultural element was like a dare she was being dared to do in front of everybody. And even if she could bend two of the four elements, even if one of her ancestors was an Air Nomad, that would, to Yue, personally, cause Sokka to probably experience the bender envy allover again if his girlfriend could bend and he couldn't.

"That's a lotta pressure to take," Yue expressed, accepting an apple from the basket. "I've had my life saved twice in the past, and I never could bend any element. I'm not so sure I can."

"Before I met Aang, I didn't believe bending to be anything other than magic," said Sokka, "of course, before I met Aang, the only bending I ever saw was Waterbending, and Katara was constantly trying to do something different with water. And then I saw Firebending, Airbending and Earthbending, learned of what's required to be able to bend, that it isn't magic. I believe you can bend two elements, Yue."

As the Tribal Princess held out the apple in her left hand, a young Flying Bison calf flew toward her.

"Grrrrr!" It growled, startling her as it took the apple from her.

"Oh!" She gasped, and the lemur took off into the air.

-x-

"…Hmm? That's weird," said Toph, having Earthbended a large tunnel going down into the canyon below the Air Temple. "There's…people behind this wall."

"What?" Katara and Aang reacted to this discovery.

"But there…can't be people living down here," went Zuko, unsure of what lied beyond the wall once Toph bended it to pieces.

"See for yourself," the blind Earthbender told them as she reduced the wall to rubble, creating a small wall of dust that came up.

What Aang saw took his breath away: Men and women of various ages, dressed in Air Nomad clothing, but without the arrow tattoos. He almost didn't want to believe this sight until he saw a young women manipulating the strands of hair on a little girl's head…with air currents. This is what gave creditability to the sight.

"Air Nomads?" Katara asked as she stepped out of the tunnel. "Aang, they're real."

Even though the sight of an Air Nomad from one-hundred years ago brought joy to the ones in front of the tunnel, they were still cautious; any wrong move could spell potential disaster.

"Hey, what's going on?" They heard Sokka's voice, and then saw him and Yue running to the scene of the noise they heard. "We heard a loud ruckus and… Aang! Katara!"

"Sokka! Yue!" Katara greeted her brother and the princess. "You're here!"

It was like a dream mixed with a nightmare of sorts: All this time, people had thought the Air Nomads long dead, with Aang believing that he was the only one left alive, and then to discover, a century later, that there were survivors that got away by merely hiding in the one place the Fire Nation never thought to look for them at. The Avatar was even surprised to find some of the older members of his culture, bowing at the sight of him, one from the past.

_This would explain why nobody's seen them in the last few decades of the war,_ thought Zuko, now feeling the woe of what could happen if his nation found out that the Air Nomads, the only nation comprised of benders, and the only nation they had sought to wipe out in order to destroy the Avatar cycle, were still in existence. _That would spell trouble. Big trouble._

After being explained everything by Sokka and Yue, including the discovery of some prophecy from hundreds of years ago (along with insuring the Air Nomads, who had been brought up to live in fear of the Fire Nation because of the war, that Zuko, the only person in the group that was from the Fire Nation, was in league with the Avatar to restore balance to the world), the small group were in conversation on what to do in the likely event that the Fire Nation found out as the war went on.

"We could wait until after Sozin's Comet arrives and then leaves," suggested Katara to them. "And as far as the Fire Nation's convinced, all the Air Nomads, except Aang, are gone, so they won't even bother to come looking here."

"But we don't know what they could do with the power of the comet when it arrives," said Zuko. "It'll still be about a month before it arrives. We should use the time to make sure that they don't continue to cause destruction. Maybe get the Air Nomads to the safety of the North Pole."

"There's no way that they'd all fit inside the submarines if flying them to safety were barely an option," Hakoda expressed.

"So, then…as long as they stay hidden here until the war's over, they're fine," went Yue.

"More or less," said Aang.

Suddenly, a Flying Bison calf came toward them and rubbed its head against Yue's body.

"Huh?!" Yue gasped.

"It looks like you made a new friend, Yue," said Katara to her.

"Did you give the calf an apple, Yue?" Aang asked.

"No, it took it from me," Yue explained.

"Either way, it looks like, by Air Nomad culture, that Flying Bison is yours now, Yue."

"Huh?!" Sokka reacted; he was confused on how did Yue could become the owner of a Flying Bison.

-x-

"It's incredible to know that the Four Nations is still comprised of four nations," said Tyro, as he and Haru practiced their Earthbending.

"But they've been hidden for so many years, and their only link to the rest of the past is through Aang," Haru responded, wondering what, exactly, Aang knew of the past that they didn't already.

As the others that visited the Western Underground Temple returned to the Western Air Temple, Aang stayed behind a little longer to educate the elder Air Nomads on how to Airbend properly, while Yue, still adjusting to what she had just discovered, had to live with her new companion for life following her around.

"When Aang said that a Flying Bison is a friend for life, he wasn't kidding," said Sokka, as the bison was unwilling to let Yue out of its sight. "What are you going to name her?"

"Oh…I'll think of something," Yue expressed, unsure of how to explain to her father that she now owned a Flying Bison. "Our time in the Air Temple just keeps getting better and better."

"Grrraurgh!" The Gaang's full-grown Flying Bison, Appa, growled, looking down at the young calf that sat beside Yue.

"Grr!" The young calf responded, and then licked the back of Yue's head.

"Oh!" The Tribal Princess sighed, feeling she would have to get used to that action of her bison. "I guess…I could always call her Korra."

-x-

The night came along, and so did Aang, back to the fountain area where everyone was eating dinner. It was also when Zuko had to bring in the seriousness of needing to plan ahead of going back to the old plan of having the Avatar master the remaining element before the comet arrives and face the Fire Lord.

"But…if you can't Firebend…and we don't know where to find one that wouldn't think of trying to kill Aang, we're at a complete loss at that," Katara told him.

"If I could understand the reason why I can't bend properly, I'd do something about it," he responded.

"Maybe it is due to you switching sides," suggested The Duke to him.

"Yeah, that is highly possible," Sokka added in.

"That's what Katara said…and I believe it to be true. But I don't want to go back to my old ways of Firebending out of anger and hatred."

"It would seem that you're going to have to draw your Firebending from a different source, then," went Toph. "I recommend…the primal source."

"Hmm?" Yue mumbled. "Where would that be? A volcano? The Fire Lord was able to bend during the eclipse because he was inside a volcano, but Zuko never did."

"No. He just has to go to wherever the original source of Firebending originated from," Toph explained to her.

"And that would be?" She asked again.

"I wouldn't know, exactly. But most people in the Earth Kingdom know that the original masters of Earthbending are the Badgermoles."

Toph explained to them how she met up with the original Earthbenders when she was younger, how they understood each other due to their blindness, that she learned the art of Earthbending to be used as an extension of her abilities and not just as a martial art.

"…For them, the original Earthbenders, it wasn't about fighting," she finished. "It was just how they interacted with the rest of the world."

"That's amazing, Toph," went Aang. "I learned from the monks one-hundred years ago, but the original source of Airbending are the Sky Bison. Hey, Appa, maybe you could teach me a lesson one of these days, buddy!"

"Grrr!" Appa growled from beside the mural of the Flying Bison.

"Flying Bison for Airbending, the Moon and Ocean Spirits for Waterbending, and Badgermoles for Earthbending," said Yue. "Incredible. Zuko?"

"It doesn't help my situation much," the banished prince said to them. "The original Firebenders were the dragons…but they're extinct."

"What?!" Aang gasped. "But how can that be? There must've been thousands of dragons a century ago before the war began. Even Roku had one. How can they be extinct?"

"They just are," Zuko expressed, and then lit up. "But there might actually be another solution. The first people to learn from the dragons were the Sun Warriors…and their former civilization's not far from this island."

"Sun Warriors? I never heard of them a century ago," Aang expressed.

"Of course, you haven't. They were extinct thousands of years ago, but their ruins still exist."

"And you believe that if you visit these ruins and stand where they stood thousands of years ago, you'll be able to Firebend again?" Katara asked him.

"It's possible," he answered her.

-x-

As the sun rose the next morning, several Earth Kingdom soldiers keeping watch over the submarines were enjoying a small breakfast, on the lookout for any Fire Nation Navy warships or airships, now that they had the means to fight on water and in the air, so that the rest of the large group could be forewarned of possible danger. As one soldier was eating a bowl of rice, he looked up and saw a small boat coming the group's way.

"Hey, there's a boat out there!" He shouted to the others.

Another soldier looked out through a small telescope and tried to see who was on the boat…and saw a large man with an unusual feature on his forehead.

"There's a guy with a…" He uttered, but then the rest was silenced by a great bang.

BOOM! An explosion came and sent several of the soldiers flying into the air and crashing onto the ground, incapacitated and injured.

The boat came ashore and the man got off and stepped onto the island, walking past the watchers like they were nobody's problem.

-x-

Yue looked at the water in the fountain pool and thought that half of what she heard from the other day was still hard to believe. She never felt anything from the water ever since she was old enough to remember things, and she could never use the water for anything other than playing and drinking whenever thirsty. But, out of curiosity, she tried to raise the water up with her left hand, focusing only on the water, wanting to believe that she could at least perform that small feat.

_Come on,_ she thought, closing her eyes now. _Come on, water… Move for me, please._

"Yue?" Somebody spoke behind her.

"Aaah!" She gasped, turning around and seeing Aang.

"What were you doing?" He asked her.

"Oh, trying to take a leap of faith," she expressed.

Aang looked around her at the pool and then looked back at her.

"You were trying to see if you could Waterbend, weren't you?" He asked her.

"Yeah, Aang, I was. I don't really believe that I can bend either of the two elements like you can. The element of change and the element of freedom seem like daydreams." Yue then sat on the edge of the pool. "To be honest, I do want to believe…and I want to do more for others, but…"

"Then just believe," Aang told her. "Believe you can…and maybe you will."

Yue looked at the water again, wanting to believe, letting go of her disbelief for a little while, and raising her left arm up again, trying to raise the water.

_Let it be true,_ she thought, _let it be true. Let me feel something from the water._

Aang watched from behind her…and his eyes widened in amazement…as the water from the pool was slowly rising up.

_She's doing it,_ he realized. _She's actually doing it!_

Yue couldn't believe it! She was bending the water! She was a Waterbender! The water was like a rising mountain of falling liquid. It wasn't bad for her first attempt.

"Aang! Yue!" They heard Zuko shouting as he ran toward them. "We got trouble!"

That broke Yue's concentration over the water as it fell back into the pool. They turned to face him and saw Katara with him.

"It's Combustion Man," Katara revealed. "He's on his way here!"

"What?!" Yue gasped.

They could feel the rumbles of the ground shaking from the explosions of the Fire Nation assassin as he came closer to the temple.

Yue looked over the edge of the temple down to the fog and proclaimed that they needed to protect the Air Nomads.

"Already ahead of you," said Zuko. "Jet and Smellerbee went with Toph and some soldiers to gather the Air Nomads and get them to safety."

"Aaahh!" They heard The Duke scream as he ran over. "He's here!"

BOOM! The presence of Combustion Man was made known by the explosions he was causing. The assassin was given solid information on where the Avatar and his companions were most likely to head off to by Azula. And this time, there was no turning back. It was either finish the job he was given…or the consequences of his failure would be most severe; he'd been hearing things about the princess that shook even his nerves, that she had dealt a fatal fate to a few Earth Kingdom individuals before she hired him to do away with the Water Tribe boy.

-x-

Sokka was rattled by the mild damage the temple was getting, and all of it was being caused by one Firebender with a lot of power.

Aang and Katara used a tornado and hail of icicles, respectively, to try and halt him, but the body of the assassin had been thickened by muscles due to the years of weightlifting and running, leaving Combustion Man unfazed by the elements.

BOOM! He fired several more explosions at the group below him that his target was in, but missed as they hid behind one of the structures of the upside-down tower beside the one he was on.

_We have to do something or else he'll destroy the entire temple!_ Yue cringed, trying to think of a way to stop Combustion Man. _There must be a way._

Longshot tried to get out in the open and fire an arrow at Combustion Man, but had to run back into the safety of the corner to avoid getting blown to pieces. And even Katara was having difficulty contending with the assassin.

"It's no good," Katara expressed to the them. "There's no way any of us can go out there and deal with him without getting blown up…and none of us can get a good angle on him from down here."

That's when Yue realized that Katara was wrong about that.

"No, Sokka can get a good angle on him," the princess expressed, and Sokka looked at her with some confusion. "He relies on just his head to Firebend, so take out his head from a safe distance."

"Of course!" He realized, and took out his boomerang. "If his head is injured, that should disrupt his Chi and he shouldn't bend properly at all."

Sokka took aim, once he measured the trajectory, and hurled his boomerang out before the next blast was made by Combustion Man. The boomerang swung right toward Combustion Man, but he moved out of the way, preventing the assault on him. And just when he was about to fire at the structure below him, he heard a whistling sound behind and turned to face its source.

BASH! He was hit in his head by the boomerang, which returned to Sokka!

"Yeah, boomerang!" Sokka cheered.

"He actually did it," said Hakoda.

Unfortunately, Combustion Man got back up and looked down at the young boy that owned the weapon that struck him and frowned.

"Aw, boomerang," Sokka groaned.

Combustion Man inhaled again, not letting his head injury get the better of him, gathering all of his Chi into setting off an explosion that would take the whole tower in one attack.

"Uh-oh!" Aang gasped. "Take cover!"

BLAST! Combustion Man fired, but something went wrong! His Chi was distributed in the attack, but it didn't aim at its intended target. It sent off several small explosions around him before one big explosion that took the tower he was on, reducing it to debris. What was left of it fell into the misty canyon below.

Thud! Yue looked and saw the metallic arm of Combustion Man had fallen onto the ground where they had hidden, and approached it.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, Yue, but…you saved us," said Zuko to her.

"It wasn't me," she redirected. "It was Sokka's boomerang."

The only real victory there was that day was that the Air Nomads were alive and well, having stayed inside the tunnel path Toph made that led from the Air Temple to the Underground Temple. It was also fortunate for the Air Nomads that the spot where the tower debris fell wasn't any part of their homes; the tower smashed onto an open space of rocks and boulders. As the sun went down and much of the damage was cleaned up, the people sat down to enjoy dinner.

"Well, I guess we won't have to worry about Combustion Man coming after us again," said Jet.

"Yeah," added The Duke.

Yue, not up to talking about the event, tried to manipulate the water in her cup, and only managed to freeze it; she was going to need a lot of practice before she could master it. And after that…maybe she would believe the gift of the winds had been granted to her.

"Grr!" She turned and saw her Flying Bison beside her, having eaten all of its hay and fruit.

_Maybe_,she thought, letting go of some of the doubts of Airbending. _Maybe._

Korra licked her face again and Yue laughed. The Tribal Princess could only think of just one thing that was bound to happen later on: How her father was going to react when he found out that the family had its own Flying Bison.

A/N: Well, I'll stop here for this chapter. I hope it'll satisfy your reading material hunger for a while longer. What do you think? Yue is capable of bending two elements and there are Air Nomads still alive and thriving. I like it. Review, please. The next chapter will skip some areas, but I hope it'll be good for you. Peace!


	17. The Princess learns the Art of Bending

Creation began on 10-30-11

Creation ended on 11-14-11

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess learns the Art of Bending

A/N: Okay, here we go. Yue's about to get a crash course of basic bending from two masters of the elements she'll need to learn how to control. And much later, she'll have to learn a skill used by Airbenders of the past. Let's do this!

As Aang and Zuko left to go find this Sun Warrior civilization two days after Combustion Man's supposed death, Yue was set to learn some Waterbending from Katara.

"The first thing you need to know about Waterbending is that what, exactly, Yue?" Katara asked her.

"It's the flowing element of change," Yue answered, trying to be calm about this.

"Okay, good. In order to master water, you must let your feelings flow in whatever direction they may lead you. The water teaches us acceptance, and so we must let our emotions flow like the water."

Yue was impressed by Katara's understanding of the philosophy of Waterbending. And it was all true.

"We'll try some basic Waterbending. Try to move the water and turn it into a whip." She told her.

The Tribal Princess then raised her hands against the fountain pool and calmly tried to bend an ample amount of the water out and turn it into a whip. She saw the water slowly rising out of the pool, not a lot of it, but a good amount on her first lesson, and levitated it away and turned it into a blubbery-like whip of water.

Katara wasn't disappointed; the princess only found out about her dual heritage a few short days ago, so it was only natural that she be a little slow at learning how to bend.

"Grr!" They both looked and saw Korra approaching them; the Flying Bison calf obviously interested in what Yue had floating in front of her.

"Uh-oh," Yue sighed, and the bison jumped at the water and consumed it all.

"It's still hard to believe that that's your bison now," Katara told her.

"Harder to believe that she's only two months old," Yue added.

"Appa wasn't full-grown until Aang had turned twelve. Or as full-grown as a Flying Bison can get from one-hundred years ago."

Korra then licked Yue's face again, expressing her affection for the princess.

"One of these days, you're gonna have to fly around on her back," Katara told Yue.

"Not until she's older," Yue responded. "Shall we resume?"

After setting Korra by the mural of the Sky Bison, the Tribal Princess continued with her Waterbending lessons from the master…and while still new to the art, she was understanding it enough to know what she was supposed to do. She recalled the style that her people of the North Pole used when they performed Waterbending feats, how they focused more on being defensive, whereas her teacher demonstrated the Southern Style of Waterbending, which was more aggressive and offensive, and Katara learned everything beneficial from the corrupt Waterbender, Hama, before she was apprehended by the authorities for her kidnappings. Of course, the one practice that Katara was making a heavy conscious effort not to teach Yue was Bloodbending; both had opposed to using that art, even to save people. The Tribal Princess didn't need the possibility of forcing herself onto others like that when the other skills of the water were more than adequate enough for her.

"Ha!" Katara shot a Water Bullet at Yue, who blocked it by halting it with her hands. "Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Yue halted three more Water Bullets before she merged them together and shot the attack back at Katara, who blocked by evaporating the bullet.

"That's good, Yue. Only your first day of training, and you're excelling." Katara praised her.

"It's still just a rudimentary lesson," Yue responded, although she was accepting of the praise. "I still have a ways to go before I'm capable of impressive feats of Waterbending."

They looked up at the sky and saw the sun was setting; the day was coming to an end.

"I think before we call it a day, there should be one other lesson I teach you before dinner," Katara told her. "How to heal through Waterbending."

That made Yue's eyes widened. Ever since she started practicing, she never thought that she'd be capable of using Waterbending to heal people. If she could use that sub-skill, she'd be able to help the injured and sick just as much as Katara could…and Aang, as well, since he recently learned how to heal through Waterbending.

Katara gave a visual demonstration to Yue first by having one of the Southern Water Tribe warriors that had a slowly-recovering burn on his left arm show how water used by the bender glows when they begin the healing process.

"By redirecting the Chi in the body, you speed up the recovery rate of a person," the master explained, and the glowing water on the soldier's arm ceased and fell from his wrist to reveal healed skin.

"For burns, cuts, certain illnesses and brainwashing, right?" Yue asked, having seen Katara use the sub-skill on Jet when he was brainwashed and herself when came to after being struck by Azula's lightning assault in Ba Sing Se.

"Exactly," Katara told her. "Now, you try it."

Another soldier with a burn and cut on his left wrist sat down in front of Yue and she set down a bowl of water to work with.

"Okay," Yue sighed, looking at the injury. _Just focus. This is nothing you've not seen before. You were hurt in a similar fashion and you made a good recovery._

As she concentrated, the water rose from the bowl and covered her hands, glowing the silvery-blue color that came with the healing properties of the water. She pressed her palms against the soldier's arm and focused on healing the injury. Her hair strands raised up a little, as if a small breeze was affecting her actions.

"What in the…" Katara wondered; this had never happened with her before.

Despite her focus, Yue found it easier for herself to close her eyes as she worked on the soldier's arm. When the glowing ceased, and her hair fell back to her sides, she opened her eyes and removed her hands from the soldier's wrist, seeing no injury left.

"You did it, Yue," Katara congratulated her. "You're a healer now."

-x-

Late at night, as the people slept, Sokka, unable to sleep much, got up and sat at the edge of the temple ledge, staring up at the stars and moon.

"Can't sleep?" He heard Yue behind him, and he turned to face her.

"Yeah," he smiled at her, and then patted the ground beside him for her to sit next to him, which she did, and set her sword aside, as well.

"Do you… Do you know why some people of the Water Tribes are, primarily, nocturnal?" She asked.

"No. Lack of sleep?" He asked.

"No. It's because they had ancestors that were watchers of their respective tribes," she explained. "They had great vision at night and could see things in the shadows and snowstorms that others couldn't. Maybe you're a descendant of those watchers from the Southern Water Tribe."

"I must be… Now I have an alibi for my lack for sleep at night."

"Grr," they heard Korra as she came over and sat beside Sokka.

"Heh-heh… I think she likes you," Yue told him, and then wrapped her arms around his waist.

-x-

"Um…Yue?" Teo spoke up behind Yue the next day.

The Tribal Princess, who was washing her face of dirt, turned to face him and asked, "Yes, Teo?"

The wheelchair-bound boy looked up at her, unsure of how to explain his question to her, but had to or else he'd probably never get it out of his system.

"You're…uh…supposed to learn Airbending from Aang when he and Zuko return from their journey to the Sun Warrior civilization, right?" He asked her.

"Yes."

"Well, I… My father and I had, originally, made this for Aang, but since it's believed that you can Airbend, you'll probably need it more than to just let it go to waste by not being used."

Yue then saw him remove something from his wheelchair and gave it to her: It looked like a long, shaft-like tool with a circular design, different from the staffs used by the Air Nomads, as theirs were more squarish. Before she could even ask what it was, exactly, as if by magic, a large pair of blue wings came out of its sides with a smaller pair at its base.

"It's a glider," she said, impressed by its design now. "Thank you, Teo."

Of course, it being a glider meant that it was assumed that Yue, a potential Airbender herself, could manipulate air currents and fly, eventually. But she didn't want to hope on that just yet.

After being shown how to close it (as Yue didn't know any Airbending yet, and how simple it was to change the glider into a staff for regular use), Yue resumed her sword training with Sokka; this was because, despite the beneficialness of the Bending Arts, it was important to put to use regular skills that were just as trivial and beneficial elsewhere, and because she wanted to spar with Sokka.

CLASH! Sokka had blocked one of Yue's sword thrusts and closed the gap between them.

"You're holding back," he told Yue.

"You, too," she responded, and pulled back. "You're getting better."

"The more you train, the better you get."

"Too true. It can be bitter work to train like this…but the results are more than worth it."

"Can I ask you something personal, Yue?"

"Sure."

CLASH!

"Do you…think I'm weak?"

CLASH!

"No. I don't think you're weak at all, Sokka. Can I be honest about something with you?"

"You know you can."

CLASH!

"I don't mind the bending…but I enjoy the swordsmanship and other skills that we learn each day more than usual."

"How so?"

"I grew up back home knowing non-bender-related things: Everything a regular person knows, like how to lead others during desperate times. Even back then, nobody actually thought to teach me any bending, even if it was just one part of bending."

Sokka could sympathize with her; back in his childhood years, he was taught how to be a warrior and he was without any Waterbending abilities that his sister possessed. But that didn't stop him from wanting to do his part in putting an end to the war. And, in some honesty, he drew strength from being reminded that he, an ordinary guy with a tendency to use a boomerang, was invaluable to the cause of stopping the Fire Nation during their time in the Earth Kingdom and the failed invasion of the Fire Nation Capital. None of the benders came close to matching wits with him.

When they were done sparring, as well as burning off some pounds, they sat down and enjoyed a cup of water. With less than a month left before Sozin's Comet arrived, they were doubling their efforts to find a strategic way of winning the war in their favor, but to no avail other than to build up their strength for the upcoming battles.

"Grr!" They both heard a familiar roaring sound that belonged to their Flying Bison friend, Appa.

"Aang and Zuko have returned?" Yue wondered, seeing the large, original Airbender flying towards them in a slow pace, with Aang steering. "They're back."

-x-

"With this technique we learned from Ran and Shao," Aang explained to everyone later that night, demonstrating some Firebending that he never believed he could perform before, "Zuko and I will be near unstoppable against the Fire Lord's forces."

They were applauded for what was seen as an incredible dance that was part of the lessons they learned from the Firebending Masters.

Whilst Sokka poked fun at the ancient form of Firebending, Yue had studied some of the moves and planned to incorporate them into her style of fighting for evasive defense.

_The Dancing Dragon,_ she thought, finding it unusual for an ancient form of Firebending to be used to imitate and even communicate with actual dragons, along with explaining fully on how Iroh demonstrated Firebending without rage or anger.

Everybody laughed at the name of the ancient form while Zuko did his best to keep his anger under management; it would be a while before he developed a good sense of humor.

-x-

The next morning, once everybody was well-rested, Yue was set to learn the art of Airbending from the only experienced master there was left. It was both exhilarating and terrifying to learn something like this that would prove she was capable of performing it. In a way, Airbending was similar to Waterbending in that the bender had to be flexible and evasive.

"Okay, Yue, are you ready?" Aang asked her, as they had traveled to the cliff above the Air Temple for lots of free space to move about.

"Yeah… I'm ready," she responded, nervous.

"Okay. We'll begin with a very basic move: The Air Ball. Move your hands together and try to form a small ball made of compressed air."

Aang demonstrated by moving his hands together, up and over each other until Yue saw air gathering around him. Then Yue tried to perform, but there was no air forming around her palms. She was beginning to doubt that she could bend air at all.

Just when she was about to speak her mind about this, Korra showed up and watched her.

"Grr!" She growled at the Tribal Princess.

"I believe she's encouraging you not to give up," Aang told Yue.

"She believes I can Airbend when I don't believe I can?" Yue asked.

"It didn't come to me easily back when I started my Airbending training. It's trial and error. We have plenty of time to get it right, Yue."

Yue then walked over to pick up the staff Teo had given her that was intended to go to Aang. She turned to face the Avatar and asked him to teach her how to use it to build up her confidence; sometimes, the best way to build up the nerve to bend was to continue building up one's body.

Aang picked his staff and the two began. The Avatar could've gone easy on the Tribal Princess, but got the idea not to since said princess was trying to bend with the staff in her hands. He dodged and evaded her every move, got behind her, and countered her every swing of the staff.

_This is impossible,_ thought Yue, ducking down and swinging her staff right, and unexpectedly knocked Aang down. "Oh!"

Aang hadn't expected that move coming at all. It was the first time ever since he met her at the Northern Water Tribe that she caught him off guard, and he'd been told that he had the reflexes of a Waterbending Master.

"Oops," Yue gasped, helping him back onto his feet. "Sorry, Aang."

"It's okay. It was unexpected, that's all. Actually, I should be thanking you for knocking me down, Yue. It helped me realize something that's most important in learning Airbender, and it's something Monk Gyatso had taught me."

"Oh?"

"Yes. The strength to bend the air comes not only from the strength of one's will…but one's spirit, as well. The spirit, which is lighter than air, lighter than anything else in existence, allows the Airbender to Airbend. It was also the reason to why, in the past before the war, every Air Nomad was born with the ability to Airbend."

"Yes, I was taught that the Air Nomads were the only nation out of us all that was comprised entirely of benders. That you have a higher sense of spirituality than the other nations."

"So…before you may be able to get a grip on Airbending, you have to increase your spirituality so that the air may lift you."

At that moment, Korra ran over toward Yue and pushed her onto her back before going over the cliff.

"Aaaahh!" Yue screamed, grabbing a fist full of Korra's fur as the baby Flying Bison dove down. "Somebody, help me!"

But Korra propelled herself upward after diving several feet into the air between the cliff and the temple grounds, hovering for a few moments before actually flying around.

Aang grabbed his glider and flew after them, watching the baby bison Airbend.

"Yue, I think Korra's actually helping you," he told the Tribal Princess, flying at an even pace with the bison calf.

Yue raised her head up and looked around her as she was in the air. Her bison was flying over the mist and beside the canyon walls, with such a gracefulness that she couldn't help but feel pleased by. As her grip on Korra's fur loosened, the bison flew back up toward the top of the cliff and over the grounds that led the large group to the Air Temple.

"Grr!" Korra growled, now flying toward the ocean and shifting her large tail so that they were close enough to the surface of the water for Yue to gaze down at her reflection…along with Korra being able to skirt her feet across the water.

The princess looked over Korra's head and saw the vastness of the ocean and the equally vastness of the air…and felt a calmness that came from both. She felt lighter than she used to be, freer than ever.

"Heh…heh-heh… Ha-ha-ha!" She laughed out as she let go of her bison's fur and held her arms out. "I'm flying! Whoo-hoo! Whoo-hoo!"

"Grrr!" Korra growled again, and then flew them back to the temple where the princess slowly got off her back and touched back on the grounds of the temple floor, where Sokka and the others met up with her, wondering what was up.

"Oh, it was a little detour lesson in learning Airbending," she expressed, unable to hide her blush.

-x-

"…So Korra actually got Yue on her back and took her flying?" Katara and Smellerbee asked Aang, who had seen the whole thing.

"It sounds like Yue learned something in what you were trying to teach her from the original source, Aang," said Zuko.

As they were conversing, Yue, who stood at least thirty feet away from them with Korra, looking at the Sky Bison mural again, couldn't stop thinking about the lesson that her bison had taught her by showing the positives of Airbending through flying. Then…she looked at her hands and then at her friends and Sokka, who was also talking with the others.

"I still can't see what type of lesson it would teach Yue," Sokka told the group.

WHOOSH! A blast of wind came at them and left them startled!

"Whoa!" Zuko and Katara gasped, and then looked over at Yue and Korra, who the only ones far away from where the wind had hit them came from.

Yue, who seemed, somewhat, ignorant of the scene, pointed her right thumb toward Korra, who did nothing but grumble.

Toph, due to her Earthbending, found out the truth faster than the others did and said, "She's lying."

Sokka and Aang were stunned! They were almost to the point of demanding Yue to show them what she had done…until the princess raised her arms and shot them outward at the air outside the temple…and unleashed a strong blast of wind, not so different from Aang's, only smaller.

She looked to them and gave a small smile and chuckle before saying, "Can we begin again, please?"

Sokka looked at Aang and told him, "She's asking you, man. Sifu Aang."

-x-

With less than two and a half weeks left before Sozin's Comet arrived, there was some more focus being given into the learning of the three elements.

Yue, taking the heavier course than Aang had, was standing in front of the ocean and inhaling the warm breeze. There had been something true to what had told them all what he had learned from Roku when he himself was learning to bend the other elements: It was bitter work…but the results were worth it. And while she hadn't learned past her basics with the element of freedom, she was confidant enough to pull off at least one foolish stunt. She bended the water in front of her and sent out a rushing stream of it away from the island…while, at the same time, bended a small stream of air on her left, shifting it into a vertical twister…before Sokka, Katara, Aang, Toph, Jet, Zuko and Korra, who applauded her.

"Very good, Yue," Aang, praised her, but then held out his staff, "but there's still one more lesson I have to teach you before I declare your skills sufficient enough: How to fly on a glider."

That lesson, despite her last few days of training in the art that she had doubted in being capable of learning, came back and bit her in the blubber. Her course in the Airbending lessons was very different from the ones of the past, the ones that Aang had taken, and were overall short. She hadn't mastered the thirty-six required tiers or created a new technique, rarely meditated to maintain her focus on the potency of the element, or anything else of the sort that Aang and past Air Nomads had done. And, to be honest, the princess preferred it when he had taught her how to use the Air Scooter on her own.

Aang was confidant enough in her obtained skill at Airbending to be able to fly on a glider. He had explained to her all the requirements and how the Air Nomads were able to use them as long as they had the strength to bend the wind currents in order to fly short distances. Plus, this is really what he'd been leading Yue up to. Only a small handful of his surviving people could fly close to well enough on their crudely-made gliders; he had to see if one born into the Water Tribes, a descendant of an Air Nomad from hundreds of years ago, could pull off a simple-yet-special skill.

Yue slowly picked up her glider and opened its wings up. She couldn't turn away now. This was another test that she wanted and needed to pass as an Airbender, a Waterbender, and as a warrior of the sword and shield.

The master and student stood over the edge of the temple floor and prepared to take flight.

"Ready?" Aang asked her.

"Mm-hmm," Yue responded, and then they fell from the ledge and into the air. "Ohh!"

Remembering what Aang said about no manipulation of air currents creating no lift, she used her feet, the required source to fly when grounded or falling, and bended the air beneath her body.

_Please, let me do this!_ She thought, and grabbed her glider's handles as she set her feet on the foot supports of her glider's tail assembly.

Turning right, she closed her eyes and prayed that she could pull this off; otherwise, there'd be little to no advantage when it comes to trying to make a getaway from an impossible enemy.

Whoosh! She opened her eyes and saw, to her expressed relief, that she was now flying sideways besides the canyon wall. She moved away from the wall and soared upward into the sky. Whoosh!

"Wow, the princess is flying."

"She's not doing too bad."

Those were some of the comments of the soldiers of the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom as they looked up and saw Yue flying on her own for the first time.

"Grr!" Korra roared, taking off after Yue to fly with her. "Grr!"

"Heh-heh!" Yue laughed out, careful not to swallow any bugs. _I could probably do this all day if I could…but not today._

-x-

One of the things Sokka was found to be most proud of, besides Yue's bending skills and swordsmanship, was his complete disbelief of Aunt Wu's prediction that he would find most of his own pain to be self-inflicted; having Yue, who wasn't properly trained to land back on the ground, crashing into him was direct proof of such.

"Sorry, Sokka," she apologized to him.

"Eh-heh… It's okay," he forgave her, smiling his goofy smile again. "Nobody's perfect."

"Heh…yeah. Nobody's perfect."

Later in the night, around a campfire within the temple, once Zuko had passed out tea (his skill in preparing the so-called 'hot leaf juice' as he once heard Iroh call it when he expressed distaste in a cup of it that he tried back in Ba Sing Se had improved greatly), he uttered out one of his uncle's old tea jokes to the group.

"I'm not exactly sure how the joke starts, but the punch line of it is, "Leaf me alone, I'm bushed"."

Everyone was quiet; either they hadn't got the joke or weren't expecting Zuko to say something like that before since he joined up with them.

"Ha-ha-ha!" Yue cracked up in front of them. "Leaf me alone! Ha-ha-ha!"

While the joke was lost to Sokka, Yue, apparently, picked it up quite well.

_I wonder if Suki knows any jokes like this,_ she thought, but then her laughter died down; her memory of the failed invasion resurfaced and that one piece of detail brought back the harsh reality of the fact that during their last few days in the Earth Kingdom, Azula and her two friends had captured the Kyoshi Warriors and infiltrated the capital city. _And we don't even know where Suki is._

It wasn't until about an hour or so later that night that the Tribal Princess took notice of Sokka going through that Fire Nation atlas of his that contained information about many of the places belonging to the nation, minus the uninhabited islands and the ancient Sun Warriors' civilization, and asked him what he was doing.

"Earlier, I had asked Zuko about what the Fire Nation does with most of their war prisoners," he answered her, "and, despite being away from his home for three years after he was banished, is still quite knowledgeable about some of the places that haven't changed in the years of his absence. I'm looking for the Boiling Rock's exact location; it's supposed to be between the Air Temple and the Fire Nation's northern region."

Yue got up and crawled over to him and looked at his atlas, and then pointed toward an island that seemed to be in the north.

"This one?" She asked him.

"Yeah, Yue," he answered. "This is the island it's situated on…in the center of a volcano in the middle of a boiling lake, making it inescapable."

Yue could picture a boiling lake; Waterbenders enjoyed warm things with a great passion, but the challenge of freezing a lake that had the temperature of liquid flames was nearly an impossible feat, save for perhaps the Avatar, whom possessed countless incarnations' worth of Waterbending experience. Even she dared not to try and bend boiling water at her opponents.

"But…according this set of details here, the Boiling Rock has only been around for about five years, built shortly after Ozai was made Fire Lord following the death of his father, Azulon."

"That doesn't change that its escape record is virtually nonexistent, Yue. It's more up-to-date than any other prison in the world. I mean, hundreds of prisoners are placed there, with more than half of its population comprised of Firebenders and regular soldiers that went against orders in the war and got arrested, and the rest of the population is just foreign war prisoners. It…it could be where Suki was sent to after she and the other Kyoshi Warriors were captured."

The princess looked at him for a good moment and saw that light in his eyes that only showed up when something was wrong with him, emotionally; she hated to see him not happy. And, with honesty, she was hoping to get to know the warrior some more when she heard that she was in Ba Sing Se…before she discovered that it was Azula.

"How are we gonna get there?" She asked him.

"We?" Sokka said, surprised; he hadn't expected Yue to want to assist him in heading to a dangerous, maximum-security prison after hearing about it.

"Going there is much too dangerous for just one person to handle alone, even to rescue somebody that might be there," she expressed.

"Yeah, how are we gonna get there?" They looked up and saw Zuko; he had been so silent, they didn't know he was eavesdropping.

"Aah!" They gasped quietly, as to not wake anybody else up.

"Last time I checked, prisons lacked certain places to dock submarines or cater to bison," he told them.

"Grr…" They turned and saw Korra getting up from her slumber, looking at them.

"I'm starting to suspect that Korra sticks to you like glue, Yue," said Sokka.

A/N: Okay, here we go to the next chapter! Sorry to leave you at what seems like a cliffhanger, but I want to save the best for next time. To the Boiling Rock! Yay!


	18. The Princess and the Prison

Creation began on 11-14-11

Creation ended on 11-25-11

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Prison

As the morning mist came about, Aang, Katara and the others got up, but noticed that Sokka, Yue, Zuko and Korra were nowhere to be found.

"Does anyone know where Sokka, Yue, Zuko and Korra went?" Aang asked.

Chief Hakoda then looked down at Momo, who was still asleep, and noticed that the Flying Lemur had what looked like a note in its possession and picked it up.

"It says here that they went fishing for meat," he told them, recognizing Sokka's handwriting: _"Need meat. Couldn't wait. Gone fishing. Try to be back in three days. Sokka, Yue and Zuko. One more thing: Aang, practice your Firebending while I'm gone. Spend an hour performing your Breath of Fire and twenty push-ups every time you hear a Badger Frog croak. Zuko."_

The Avatar was hoping that no Badger Frogs were nearby for him to hear or anyone else to hear croaking…because he really didn't want to spend his morning practicing his Firebending. He still needed to improve his Earthbending by learning more of the advanced techniques, like Mudbending and Metalbending.

Croak! A Badger Frog had croaked some distance from the Air Temple.

"Nobody else has homework," he sighed, unhappy about this, and went to a large enough space to do his requested push-ups.

-x-

"Are you sure Korra can fly us all the way to the island, Yue?" Zuko asked the Tribal Princess, not wanting to doubt the calf's ability to get them there, but wanting to be cautious because it was still so young and probably couldn't support their combined weight.

"I fed her about a day's worth of hay and soup, so she should be able to make the crossing," Yue told him, and, on a personal level, the princess was beginning to think that Sokka was right about Korra sticking to her like glue; the calf barely let her out of her sight.

"Grr!" Korra growled, flying a little faster now.

Even as a calf, Korra was no bigger than Appa had been when he and Aang met for the first time a century ago, so she was large enough to accommodate at least three people without a saddle, which Yue reminded herself to acquire once the bison was bigger in the years to come after the war was over.

"Pretty clouds," went Sokka, looking up toward the sky.

"Nice ocean," added Yue, trying to pass the time until they reached the Boiling Rock.

"Yeah, both are nice," said Zuko, holding onto the fur on Korra's tail.

"You know, the Mechanist actually built the war balloons we saw back at the Fire Nation Capital," uttered Sokka.

"Really?" Zuko asked, now that they were engaged in conversation.

"Yeah. A balloon…but for war."

"If there's anything my father's good at, it's causing war."

"But at least the drive to do so doesn't run entirely in the family," said Yue, bringing up a subtle topic.

"What do you mean?" Zuko asked her, confused.

"I mean, not everyone in your family's war-crazy. There's your uncle…your mother…and even you. Instead of aiding in the war's victory in the Fire Nation's favor, you're helping to put an end to it and restore balance. Instead of letting your father put an end to your existence, your mother did everything she could to ensure your survival…and Iroh stuck with you after you were banished instead of leaving you alone."

"Yeah, she's right," added Sokka.

"It wasn't hard to go against the Fire Nation in the end," Zuko told them.

"You mean, despite every available opportunity you had that day back in Ba Sing Se, you didn't leave behind anybody you cared about besides your uncle?" Sokka asked him.

"Well…there was this one girl, Mai."

"You mean that gloomy, depressed girl that sighs a lot?" Yue asked.

"Yeah, that's her. I haven't seen her since I was banished, and now that the Fire Nation calls me a traitor, I can't see her and get her involved."

"I got involved in the war the moment Zhao tried to kill the Moon Spirit. I would've ended up becoming the new Moon Spirit if his attack were left unchecked." Yue told him. "I would've had to leave behind everybody I cared about."

Zuko looked at her and said, "That's a rough fate, Princess Yue."

-x-

The night was calm, the journey a while longer than they had expected it would, and Yue was becoming worried about the fact that they had decided to use the cloud disguise they used on Appa when traveling around the islands on Korra (it also helped to see if Yue to see if she could manipulate the clouds around her to her advantage) as a precaution.

"Grr!" Yue heard Korra growl, and raised some of the cloud away to look down at what her bison had found. "Grr!"

It was an island that seemed to be steaming. Her eyes widened! That was it! That was the island the Boiling Rock was situated on.

"We're here!" Yue told the others, removing the cloud altogether for them to see; since there was steam all around the air, there was enough cover for them to fly around in.

"So long as we're quiet, we should be able to navigate our way to the grounds of the prison undetected," said Zuko.

Korra flew over the edge of the inactive volcano that housed the boiling lake of water and passed by the gondola that acted as the only means of getting to or from the prison, and landed outside said prison to unload her passengers.

"Ah," sighed Sokka, stretching his limbs. "Ah, this feels so good."

Yue had to agree with him; sitting atop the back of a Flying Bison calf for several hours in the air wasn't very pleasant. It was the opposite feeling they got while traveling on Appa, but this was due to the fact that Appa was older and larger; Korra was only two months old, years away from becoming massive like the one-hundred-six-year-old bison was.

"Thank you, Korra," she praised her bison, and then sent her off to hide until they had found who they were looking for. _Until we find Suki, Korra's our one-way ticket here and back again, and we can't risk her discovery, as well as the discovery of the surviving Air Nomads._

As the bison calf took off, the three wandered into the prison through a ventilation system, entering a storehouse of sorts filled with prison guard uniform assortments: Helmets, shoulder pads, boots and the like. They grabbed what they fitted in and left the storehouse like regular guards.

"I hope these disguises work," went Zuko.

"We just need to keep a low profile until we find Suki and then make our escape," Yue told him.

"So where do we start?" Sokka asked; his atlas of the Fire Nation lacked a detailed map of the prison besides what was drawn in it.

Within moments, they heard scuffling feet and saw some guards running about the hall. One of them stopped and took notice of the three.

"You three! There's trouble in the yard! This way!" The guard told them, and they came along.

-x-

There must've been hundreds of inmates out in the yard! Maybe close to five-hundred of them! All wearing poor shades of red and brown. They were forming a circle around a guard and an inmate, expecting something to happen.

"I didn't do anything wrong," they heard the inmate say to the guard. "I'm going back to my cell."

_It doesn't seem like that guy was a soldier in the Fire Nation armies,_ thought Yue, taking a guess that the inmate in trouble was probably no older than some of the Earth Kingdom soldiers from the invasion force. _He doesn't even seem like the type of person that likes to fight unless he has something to gain._

"Stop right there, Chit Sang," said the guard to the inmate. "I've had just about enough of your unruly behavior going on."

"Now, what did I do?" The inmate, Chit Sang, asked the guard.

"You didn't bow when I walked by," the guard answered.

"Excuse me?! That's not a prison rule."

"Do it."

"Make me."

Yue and the others were set to intervene, but take caution not to blow their cover, but it seemed like everything was under control as Chit Sang walked away from the guard. Unfortunately, the guard decided to make trouble happen and bended a whip of flames at Chit Sang, who turned and defended himself by Firebending the whip away.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You know Firebending is prohibited, Chit Sang," the guard told him. "It's back to the Cooler for you."

-x-

Having agreed to meet up in an hour, Yue, Sokka and Zuko broke up to learn what they could about the prison: Sokka assisted the bully guard in taking Chit Sang to this Cooler, Yue wandered around the prison yard, and Zuko went to the lounge to speak with the veterans about the prison.

In the lounge, after hearing the unsought rule of not being able to date the female guards, Zuko would've been the first to believed that Yue and Sokka, a couple posing as guards, would've been adamant and broken that rule the first chance they got. But he would have to wait a while to get their reactions as he needed to know if the Boiling Rock kept any war prisoners around.

Away from the lounge and toward a hall where the Coolers were kept, Sokka had to refrain from grimacing a little as the prisoner, Chit Sang, shivered as he tried to stay warm from the cold air that blew inside the chamber every now and then.

"It sure looks cold in there," he told the bully guard, keeping up appearances in his disguise.

"That's why it's called the Cooler. He won't be Firebending in there, and even when he gets out, he still won't be able to. Put a Firebender in there for a day, and they won't bend for a week." The bully guard told him.

Out in the yard, Yue looked at some of the inmates, and, as far as she could tell, the majority of them did seem to belong to the Fire Nation. But a great many of them appeared to be weakened, spiritually, probably as a result of being here for an undetermined period of time; they just stood around or sat on small boulders, hardly doing anything.

_Not exactly what I was expecting,_ she thought, leaving the yard to look at it from the railings of one of the towers. _Everyone's so__…__devastated._

"How goes about the inmates, fellow guard?" She heard a friendly voice behind her.

Turning to face two guards that were about her height; all the other guards were much taller than they were, and raised up the visor of her helmet to reveal her face to them.

"These prisoners are broken," she told them as they lifted their visors up to expose their faces. "It seems that all they know is how to eat and breathe, like they're…dead inside."

"Some of them have been in the Coolers more than once," revealed Sokka to her. "A Firebender spends a day in one, and they can't bend for a whole week. And no one's ever been able to escape from here, either. The Warden, the guy in charge of the whole prison, states that those that try to escape would sooner throw themselves into the boiling lake than to try and break the record of being the first to grasp freedom. What'd you find out, Zuko?"

"The guards said that they haven't been getting many war prisoners; the prison's practically loaded with Fire Nation criminals and former soldiers, but nobody from the other nations." Zuko expressed.

"That can't be true," sighed Yue, not wanting to believe that they came here for nothing. "Did you do a double check, Zuko?"

"Positive," the banished prince told her.

Yue leaned against the railing and looked down at the inmates, unable to cope that the person they were looking for was not here.

"This can't be happening," Sokka sighed, leaning against the railing with her.

Then, the Tribal Princess realized a sliver of hope in Zuko's information: He said that the Boiling Rock hasn't been getting many war prisoners, not any war prisoners, so the window of possibility that the person they were looking for might still be here!

"Zuko, you said they haven't been getting many war prisoners," she told him, "which should mean that there should still be some here."

"Oh!" They heard Sokka gasp. "Down there! There she is!"

Yue and Zuko looked down at the inmates and Sokka pointed to one sitting on a rock, drinking out of a cup. It was a young woman, a young girl, actually, dressed like the other prisoners, but her face and hairstyle gave her away as somebody from the other nation with the most population of divided people under a single ruler.

"Suki," Yue and Sokka expressed, finally finding her.

"Alright, prisoners!" They heard a guard on the yard yell out to the inmates. "Back to your cells!"

-x-

Now that Suki had been found, the hard part was getting her out of the prison, which required the trio to think of a way that was most effective.

"This is her cell," went Yue, outside of Suki's cell. "Let's reintroduce ourselves."

Zuko kept watch over the cell door by making himself scarce as he mopped up the floor as the couple stepped inside to meet the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors.

Suki didn't expect two guards to come see her in her cell, not even after she was brought here before the fall of the Earth Kingdom, though she prayed their meeting had nothing to do with her island home being taken over by the Fire Nation.

"What is it?" She asked them. "Did I do something wrong?"

"Oh, you mean you don't recognize us?" Sokka asked her.

"You all look the same, each and every day," she answered him.

Sokka and Yue looked at each other and then removed their helmets, revealing their faces to her.

"How about now?" Yue asked her, which surprised her.

"Sokka! Yue!" She gasped happily as she ran to hug both of them. "What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you, of course," Yue expressed. "The other Kyoshi Warriors, are they here with you?"

"No. I don't know where they were taken. They only sent me here because I was the leader."

"Well, you won't be here for long. We're busting you out," said Sokka.

The second Sokka stepped out, some of the easy plan of simply walking out the hall went south; a guard had came by and got into a small brawl with Zuko, who was trying to cover for the others.

"Guards, help!" She called out to Sokka and Yue. "I think he's an imposter! Arrest him!"

Sokka and Yue didn't want to blow their cover, so they went along and grabbed Zuko and pinned him against the wall.

"You're under arrest," said Yue to him, and then she whispered into his left ear. "We'll figure something out."

-x-

"Well, well, well," said the Warden to the banished prince. "I didn't expect to see you here of all places…Prince Zuko."

Zuko looked up at the head of the Boiling Rock and asked, "How do you know who I am?"

"How could I not know who you are? Everyone's aware of the banished prince… And, besides that, you went and broke my niece's heart."

If Zuko's scarred visage was healed, you could've seen the rest of his shocked expression. This man was Mai's uncle.

"I didn't want to hurt her," he told the Warden.

"Be silent," the Warden responded. "You're my special prisoner now, so you'd best behave. If the whole prison found out that you were here, the banished Prince of the Fire Nation that turned his back on his people in Ba Sing Se, why, they'd tear you to pieces and toss your leftovers into the boiling lake just for laughs."

"What's in it for you? Why not just tell my father and collect a grand reward?" Zuko asked him.

"In due time, I intend to collect," the Warden told him, a dark smile forming on his face.

-x-

"…So, the Warden is Mai's uncle?" Yue expressed. "No wonder he hates your guts. But I don't get it, though. How can you be accused of breaking his niece's heart…if you two haven't seen each other since your were banished?"

"It turns out she was with Azula when she was in the Earth Kingdom…and she was hoping to see me whilst hunting down the Avatar," Zuko explained, as Yue kept watch over him and Suki as they mopped up the floor; while the guards were often assigned to do so, Yue noticed that several of them often forced the prisoners to do their work for them, so, just to keep up appearances, she 'forced' Suki and Zuko to do her cleaning duty for her.

When Sokka showed up, he was a little surprised to see Zuko and Suki mopping together.

"Oh, great, you two have met," he greeted them.

"Actually, we met a long time ago," uttered Suki to him.

"We did?" Zuko asked her.

"Yeah, you kind of burned most of my village," she told him.

"Oh. Sorry about that. Good to see you, though."

"Any ideas on how to flee the prison, Sokka?" Yue asked him.

"Just one, and it involves the Coolers. The whole point of them is to keep Firebenders contained, right? To keep the cold in an insulated environment, it has to keep the heat out."

"Yeah," went Zuko.

"So it's the perfect makeshift boat. We can use it to cross the boiling lake."

"The Cooler as a boat? Are you sure that's safe, Sokka?" Yue asked him.

"Perfectly safe, Yue. I also walked around the perimeter and found a blind spot between two guard towers, making it the perfect launching spot for it. So long as we're quiet, we can drift along the current to the other side."

"I'm convinced. Just one problem: How are you going to get the Cooler out?" Suki asked him.

"Yeah, how are you going the Cooler out?" They heard somebody above their heads ask them.

It was Chit Sang, and he was eavesdropping on them.

"We didn't say that," went Yue, keeping her cool.

"Yeah, you heard wrong," added Zuko.

"Oh, I heard you hatching an escape plan…and I want in," Chit Sang told them.

"There's nothing to get in on," said Sokka.

"The only thing we're trying to hatch…is the perfect idea for a play we want to do for later," went Yue.

_And I was actually gonna say that we were trying to hatch an egg,_ thought Sokka, praising Yue for her cleverness at hiding the truth.

"Okay, well, I come with you, or I tell the Warden, and he hears about this play of yours, as well," Chit Sang threatened them.

"He's not giving us much of a choice," Suki said.

"Okay, you're in, but no funny stuff," Sokka gave in, and then held out a wrench and gives it to Zuko. "First, we need somebody to unbolt the Cooler…from the inside."

"I'm the best qualified, but how am I gonna get inside the Cooler?" Zuko questioned.

"Oh, I can get you inside," Chit Sang told them.

-x-

It was a short scene that got Zuko where he needed to be; even a pretend struggle and fight were able to convince the guards that there was trouble going on, and Zuko was sentenced to the Cooler for Firebending, giving the opportunity to do what was needed to escape.

Several hours later, as the moonlight took over the sunlight, Yue went to the Cooler that housed Zuko and opened the sealed door.

"I can take you back to your cell if you feel you've learned your lesson," she told him, trying to sound as strict as possible in the way a guard would.

Zuko, who sat in front of her, looked up and smiled.

"Yes, I have learned my lesson," he expressed as some fire was exhaled from his mouth, and he revealed the various nuts and bolts that he took off while inside. "Completely."

Yue chuckled and told him that she and Sokka had gotten the others out of their cells and were waiting by the shore.

Outside, Sokka and Suki were slowing down the Cooler that Zuko had unbolted and taking it to the shore and lake.

"I think I can see now why it's so perfectly insulated," he groaned. "It's made of thick metal."

When Yue and Zuko showed up, they came to assist, but Yue went and dragged Chit Sang over, as well; none of them expected that she would order him to help out.

"I think the guard disguise is getting to you, Yue," Zuko told her.

"Sorry, Zuko. I can't picture myself wearing a prisoner's outfit." She told him, but then took notice of a woman and a man by the shore; the woman was waving at them and the guy was sitting on a rock. "Who are they?"

"Chit Sang's girlfriend and buddy," Suki explained. "All three of them were getting pressured by their parents to join in the military, but they refused, so they were sent here on bogus charges of betraying their people."

"That's cruel."

Setting the Cooler into the water, the group were getting set to leave this accursed place for good. Until the next thing they knew…

RING-RING-RING! The alarms went off, signifying something was wrong.

"But we're still in the blind spot," Sokka told them. "It can't be us."

"I don't think it is us, Sokka," expressed Yue, pointing toward the gondola, which started moving.

"We gotta get moving," said Suki. "Back into the prison."

"But…" Chit Sang was about to protest against going back, but Yue cut him off.

"No choice. If they find your cells empty, it's back to the Cooler for you. We'll think of another way."

They rushed back to the prison, got the inmates back into their cells, and rushed to the gondola's entry point at the top of the prison's primary guard tower where some of the other guards were waiting with the Warden.

"What's going on?" Sokka asked one of the guards.

"Surprise visitors," they answered.

_Surprise visitors?_ Yue thought. _But who would come here at night to surprise us?_

As the gondola stopped, two guards opened the doors and revealed their visitors, which, of course, made Sokka and Yue cringe a little. Of all the people to show up at night, it was Azula, Mai and Ty Lee. What were they doing here?

-x-

"So, it's the Princess of the Fire Nation that's paying a visit?" Chit Sang asked Yue and Sokka, who had been ordered to let the inmates out of their cells the following morning.

"Yeah," answered Sokka, "and it gets worse. The guards found the Cooler we unbolted and are questioning everybody about it…and you're next."

"I ain't saying a thing to them," Chit Sang expressed. "I ain't no rat."

"Azula and Mai are only interested in one person, and that's Zuko, and he's supposed to see them in another hour," said Yue. "Hopefully, by then, we'll have another plan of escape."

-x-

Zuko couldn't believe that his sister was here…along with Mai. He hadn't seen her in over three years, and already he was wondering how she'd changed since then. Being told that she was a gloomy, depressed girl that sighs a lot wasn't much in the form of detail for him. His sister was another thing.

"What are you doing here?" He heard one of the male guards outside his cell.

"I was just about to tell this lowlife scum what I think about him," he somebody that sounded like Yue respond to the guard. "I know who he is. I recognized the scar on his face. He took the life of my big brother, and I want revenge by roughing him up a little."

"Well, you'll have to wait because the Warden wants him brought up to him," the guard told her.

"At least give me ten seconds with him," the girl requested.

"Fine. Ten seconds." The guard then opened the door and let the guard, it was Yue, inside and then closed the door.

"You traitor! You scum! I hate you!" The guards heard her outside the room, along with a series of hits and kicks.

"Whoa," they uttered.

"She's seriously angry with him," one of them said alone.

Back in the cell, Zuko, holding a pillow and faking being harmed by Yue as she punched the pillow with fierce determination, wondered where this princess kept the extra energy to be angry with him.

"We got a new plan, but it's gonna require a big distraction," she whispered to him. "Try to be in the yard in one hour."

They heard the door unlocking and Yue, in a fake angry voice, told Zuko to sell it.

"Aaaurgh!" He fell out of the room, holding onto his stomach. "Aaurgh!"

Yue, fake panting, told him, "Yeah, I hope you feel that for years to come, you jerk."

The guards then picked Zuko up and carried him off, ignoring Yue as she walked away, whistling with innocence and ignorance.

-x-

Sokka and some of the other guards were ordered by the Warden to show up outside where Chit Sang, having been pressured by the Warden and his goons to rat out who was in charge of the failed escape attempt to get off the Boiling Rock.

Chit Sang looked at the guards and then pointed out the one who did it.

"That's him, Warden," he revealed. "He's the imposter."

Chit Sang, despite knowing that it was Sokka, pointed to the guard that had bullied him constantly in place of him.

"What?!" The bully guard had expressed as the other guards dragged him away. "It wasn't me! He's lying! He's a liar!"

_Whew,_ Sokka thought, relieved that he wasn't ratted out.

-x-

"Hey," went Yue to a female guard in the control room housing the whole locking area of the prison, "I just got orders from the Warden. Let the prisoners out into the yard."

"Again? But it's lock-down." The female guard told her.

"Oh, okay. I'll just go tell the Warden you said that," Yue threatened her. "I'm sure he'll be more than happy to know you went against his authority."

As she turned to walk away, the guard stopped her.

"Wait, wait! Don't tell the Warden. I'm just confused." She expressed her fear to the disguised princess.

"Hey, I'm confused, too, but the Warden's been very moody since his niece and her broken heart arrived along with Princess Azula. So, if you ask me, it's best not to question it and do what he says."

"Yeah," the guard agreed with her and walked back to the control room to release the inmates. "We're letting them out again."

As the doors all opened and the inmates all stepped out into the yard, Sokka and Suki met up with Yue, but Zuko was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Zuko?" Yue asked them.

"We haven't seen him yet," answered Suki. "What's the plan to start the riot?"

"We gotta find one of the inmates that seems the most qualified to assist," said Sokka to her, and noticed an inmate that seemed tough. "I think I found one. Be right back."

Sokka went up behind the prisoner and shoved him to the ground.

"Ow!" He screamed and got back up. "What'd you do that for? It hurt my feelings."

"You…you're not the least bit angry that I shoved you?" Sokka asked in disbelief.

"Uh, normally, I would, but I've been learning to manage my anger," the prisoner explained.

"Sorry about that," Sokka apologized and then returned to the girls. "This isn't working."

"It's official," went Yue. "They've been here so long, their spirits are broken."

Then, a large hand placed itself on Sokka's left shoulder.

"You're lucky I didn't rat you out back there to the Warden," it was Chit Sang, accompanied by his girlfriend and best friend. "But my generosity comes with a price."

Sokka looked up at him and said, "We're trying to start up the new escape plan, but we need a riot to mask it before we make our move on the guy that's going to be our prisoner. Do you know how to start a riot around here?"

"A prison riot? Please," Chit Sang responded, and then grabbed his best friend and held him over his head and stepped in front of the other prisoners. "Hey! Riot!"

In two seconds, the prisoners of the Boiling Rock turned the yard into a war zone of fists and flames!

"Whoa," gasped Yue and Sokka. "Impressive."

-x-

"Hey! Who let the prisoners out onto the yard?! This is supposed to be a lock-down!" The Warden shouted in anger and went to deal with the trouble, just as Zuko was getting the verbal and visual beating from Mai, who spent several minutes telling him of how she spent weeks with Azula in the Earth Kingdom with the hope of seeing him again after three years of not hearing of him and then adding her degree of hatred of him betraying the Fire Nation, along with ripping out her heart.

"Ma'am, there's a riot going on outside. I'm here to protect you." A guard came and told Mai.

"I don't need any protection," she expressed back to the guard.

"Believe me," added Zuko. "She doesn't."

When the guard spoke up again about how the Warden ordered him to make sure Mai was kept out of harm's way, Zuko Firebends and escapes the locks on his chair and knocks the guard against the wall, accidentally taking Mai with him.

"Get off me!" Mai yelled at the guard before knocking him onto the floor.

Zuko then ran out the room, but locked the door and had a ten-second stare battle with Mai, who looked at him with cold hurt in her eyes. He blinked, losing the battle and rushing off to rejoin the others out in the yard, unaware that a tear had escaped Mai's eyes.

-x-

It was easy to stay out of the chaos of the riot. All one had to do was keep behind corners or stand against the walls; the riot was taking place in the center of the yard.

"Sokka, Yue," the Water Tribe couple heard the banished prince as he arrived.

"Good, you're finally here," Sokka expressed. "Now, all we need is the Warden."

"The Warden?" Zuko questioned.

"We're getting out through the gondola," said Chit Sang's girlfriend to him.

"They won't think to cut the lines if he's the prisoner in the escape plan," added Chit Sang's buddy.

"Okay, but how are we…"

"Suki's taking care of it right now," Yue cut Zuko off and pointed to the fighting crowd, as the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors was, true to Yue's words, taking care of the requirement.

She ran across heads and shoulders, leapt onto the wall and climbed up onto the railings, disabled four guards and tied up the Warden.

"Wow," went Chit Sang, "that's some girl."

"You can say that again," added Sokka, and they ran to where the path to the gondola system resided.

The guards that were stationed at the gondola saw the imposter guards and prisoners approaching and proceeded to Firebend until the female guard knocked them off their feet…with a gust of air.

"Yue can Airbend?" Suki asked Sokka.

"A lot has happened since the last time we saw each other," Sokka confessed, though he left out the other skills that Yue and he had developed…along with another surprise.

Zuko intercepted the flames of other guards whilst Yue continued to Airbend a path for them to take to the gondola.

"I wouldn't try anything," he warned the rest of the guards. "We have the Warden."

The guards stood down; as long as the Warden was in harm's way, they couldn't attack the enemy.

Once they were inside the gondola and moving over the boiling lake, Chit Sang's girlfriend looked back at the prison tower and saw two young girls approaching them.

"Who are they?" She asked, and Zuko and Sokka looked to see.

"Trouble," said Zuko; that was the only way he could describe his sister whenever she went after someone or something.

Azula, using her bending to propel herself forward along the lines while Ty Lee simply sprinted atop them, showed some persistence in not letting their prisoners escape.

"This is a rematch I've been waiting for," said Suki, longing for the day to come where she could fight the Fire Nation Princess again.

"Likewise," added Zuko, reminded of the battle in Ba Sing Se and the failed invasion force.

"I wish we'd brought our swords," said Sokka to Yue.

"We thought we wouldn't need them," she responded. "But we're still capable combatants."

Zuko and Suki climbed atop the gondola and fought Azula and Ty Lee, who made showed up to prevent them from escaping. It was quite an impressive small battle, really: Ty Lee couldn't hit any of Suki's pressure points like she had in the past and Azula's Firebending was nearly equal to her brother's, who was demonstrating increased versatility and defensive reactions.

"Watch the Warden," requested Yue, as she left out of the gondola to assist in the battle with her Airbending. _What am I thinking?_

Azula noticed the Water Tribe Princess and became more disgusted with her each time. First her interference in her attempt to kill the Avatar in Ba Sing Se, then her surviving her lightning attack and return at the Fire Nation Capital, where she displayed self-defensive abilities she never displayed prior to their first encounter after the incident in Omashu, and now here she was at the Boiling Rock.

_Who does this peasant princess think she is?_ She wondered, and tried to bend a stream of flames at her.

"Whoa!" Yue gasped, nearly avoiding a burn and bending a gust of wind that nearly knocked Ty Lee off the gondola. "Let's not do this. We can either be subtle…or I can be unpleasant, Crazula."

"Crazula?" Zuko asked her.

"Crazy Azula?" Yue expressed, which was a reference to what was said about his sister before.

"CUT THE LINE!" They all heard the Warden shout out to the guards back at the prison, and they were less than halfway to the other side of the transport system.

"Uh-oh," gasped Chit Sang's buddy, and he punched the Warden out cold. "Somebody's tired and needs his beauty sleep."

But the Warden had been loud enough for the guards to hear and they managed to stop the gondola by jamming a large wrench into the gears as they brought out a large saw.

"They're about to cut the line," Sokka realized, hoping that the gondola could float; despite Yue's Waterbending being almost as good as his sister's or even Aang's, he didn't think that she really could freeze the water of the boiling lake for them.

Azula was not relenting on Yue on the roof. While Zuko was able to deflect most of her blue flames, something he'd never been able to do with his bending before, he wasn't able to prevent some of those streaks from hitting Yue, who blocked with walls of air, but the Tribal Princess had just found herself in a bad predicament: She was out of space to back up against on the edge of the gondola.

Ty Lee looked down back at the prison and saw the guards cutting the line that held the gondola up.

"They're about to sever the line," she informed Azula, but the Fire Nation Princess didn't look her way; her battle with Zuko…and her hatred of Yue…were placed above the possibility of suffering a tragic end by a dip in the liquid fire.

"Aaurgh!" She grunted, sending a wave of fire at her brother, burning his wrists…and knocking the Airbending Yue off! "Ha-ha!"

"Oh, ah… Aah!" Yue screamed as she fell off.

"Yue!" Sokka screamed, seeing her fall.

-x-

"…Hmm?" The Southern Air Nomad Avatar went, pausing in his Earthbending training with Toph because he thought he heard something.

"What is it, Twinkle Toes?" Toph asked him.

"I'm not sure, but I thought I just heard Yue…screaming," he answered.

"You must be imagining things. I'm sure Yue's fine. Sokka's with her, I mean, and he's not dumb enough to let anything bad happen to her. Her very presence appears to be his inspiration." The blind Earthbender had told him. "Plus, she's got her own Flying Bison to keep watch over her. I doubt even Korra lets her out of her sight."

"I guess you're right. Korra, just like Sokka, is very attached to Yue."

-x-

Yue thought her latest visit to the Spirit World would be more…indefinite this time, but she didn't feel the same feeling of being displaced that she did the last time she was there. If anything, she still felt alive. Opening her eyes, she realized that her trip the Spirit World…was going to have to wait a while longer.

"You really do stick to me like glue!" She cheered, as Korra flew her high above the gondola.

The Flying Bison calf, never straying far from the island, felt that her life companion was in danger and flew to the boiling lake, seeing the princess falling from a height that she felt was unsafe, and then flew fast enough to catch Yue on her back.

"What?!" Azula gasped, finding this beyond the realm of possibility as Yue twisted and turned to sit upon her bison.

Korra flew down toward the water, careful not to get too close, and enabled Yue to bend water from a source, bringing up a gallon of scalding water and bending it in two whips.

WHIP-WHIP! Yue bended the whips against some of the guards trying to cut the lines and incapacitated them, leaving them yelling in pain as their unprotected skin blistered beneath their torsos before she flew back toward the gondola.

Ty Lee flips off the gondola and onto the roof of a second gondola approaching theirs while Azula Firebended herself off into the air and onto the second gondola. They dare not fight with the Tribal Princess if she could bend both air and water and mounted a Flying Bison smaller than the one they were familiar with seeing; it was no different from dealing with the Avatar himself.

But Yue took into recollection that the gondola Sokka and the others were still on needed to be set free or else the guards that weren't incapacitated would pick up the saw and cut the lines again. As she was about to make Korra fly back to the prison and harm the guards, the gondola started moving again, which left her confused.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" She heard one of the guards she had harmed say to somebody.

"Saving the jerk that ripped my heart out," went Mai, throwing several more knives and immobilizing several more guards that tried to stop her.

"Who is that?" Chit Sang asked.

"It's Mai," answered Zuko, just as Yue and Korra flew past their gondola to the other side of the transport system.

"What is she doing?!" Azula questioned, only for Ty Lee to mumble that she had no idea herself.

Once the gondola reached the outer part of the volcano crater and everybody got off, Chit Sang looked to the unconscious Warden and chuckled.

"Sorry, Warden, but your record is now officially broken," he smirked.

As they slowly proceeded down a pathway, Suki had engaged with Sokka in another conversation, one that had gaps that needed to be filled.

"Yue can bend water AND air?" She questioned. "How is that possible? And how is it possible that there's another Flying Bison? I thought Appa was the only one left."

"The Air Nomads are still around, and as for Yue, she's a descendant of this Air Nomad named Sister Eli, who was the twin sister of the Air Nomad Avatar before Aang, who traveled to the Northern Water Tribe and settled down there, thus being able to bend two of the four elements." He answered.

"So, what now?" Chit Sang asked, referring to how they were going to get off the island.

"Azula couldn't have come here by boat," said Zuko, and they all saw a Fire Nation airship docked at the shore. "That's our ticket outta here."

"But we don't know how to ride one of these things," Suki expressed.

"Give me two minutes," went Sokka, "and we'll be up in the air."

-x-

Azula was most displeased. Mai had assisted in the escape of Fire Nation enemies and traitors. Not only that, but there was the high probability that they stole her airship to escape.

Mai was restrained by the unharmed guards that had been disabled by her; the injured guards were taken into the prison for medical aid.

"Leave us," Azula ordered the guards, and they bowed and left the three girls by themselves. "I never did expect this from you, Mai."

Mai looked up at the Fire Nation Princess, just as Ty Lee looked at both girls with a frightened look, unsure of what was going to happen.

"The thing I just don't understand is: Why?" Azula questioned. "Why would you do it? You know the consequences for treason."

Mai then responded, "Well, I guess you just don't know people as well as you think you do. You miscalculated. I love Zuko…more than I fear you."

That set Azula's already-enraged temper off even more!

"No, YOU miscalculated! You should've feared me more!" She yelled in her outburst, preparing to Firebend at her, even as Mai held up one of her throwing stars.

Suddenly, before the princess could bend her flames, Ty Lee had struck two of her pressure points and disabled her!

As she fell to the ground, the guards came back and restrained the two girls and helped Azula onto her feet until she was able to stand on her own.

"You're both fools," she called them, now enraged with their betrayal of her. "Lock them away someplace I'll never have to see their faces…and let them rot!"

The guards did so, and the girls were taken away from Azula's sight.

-x-

The Gaang and invasion force were curious as to why a Fire Nation airship was docked right where the cliff that kept the Air Temple hidden…and why Sokka, Yue and Zuko were on it.

"What are you guys doing with this thing?" Katara asked them.

"Yeah, what happened to Korra?" Aang asked, and received his answer in the form of said bison calf coming to the airship's lifting platform and stopping near Yue.

"We had a slight encounter with Azula and stole her airship," Yue explained.

"Must've been a heck of a fishing trip," went Jet. "Did you bring back any meat?"

"Plenty of it," answered Sokka. "And the best meat of them all. The meat of meeting new faces…and finding old faces."

That was when Suki, Chit Sang, his girlfriend and buddy arrived at the scene and greeted them.

"Hi, we're new here," said Chit Sang to them.

"Suki?" Katara gasped. "What in… How in the… Where have you guys been for the last three days?"

"A Fire Nation prison," answered Yue. "The worst of the worst so far."

It was a happy moment of the reunion of old friends…but Toph was less interested because of the food supply thinning out at the temple.

"Seriously, it's good to see old friends, but you guys didn't find any meat?" She asked, and then Korra ran back inside the airship and returned dragging out a sack full of recently-caught fish; Yue, knowing that they needed to get fish to the temple because the supply there was going out, though that wasn't a problem for the Air Nomads because their culture was meat-free. "Oh."

"We couldn't really come back empty-handed now, could we?" Yue asked her.

-x-

It was some kind of good weird to see Yue, a Water Tribe girl with a sense of royalty from the North Pole, bending water and air in the moonlight. Or, as Suki saw, some good kind of new hope, and to know that there were still people of all four nations, even if the most spiritual one of them all had been reduced to just a sum of nearly three-hundred-twenty-seven people. She knew, from what Katara had explained to her, that a Waterbender's strength increased at night when the moon was out; this allowed Yue more control over the element of change.

"Yue?" She tried to get her attention, and the Tribal Princess lowered the water onto the ground, leting it turn to mud.

"Yes?" She asked back.

"I just wanted to say thank you for rescuing me back at the Boiling Rock."

"You're most welcome."

"But…may I ask why, exactly?"

"Because…we're friends. And…Sokka wasn't happy when he found out you were Azula's prisoner. I didn't like it when he wasn't happy, just as I don't like knowing that friends are imprisoned."

But Suki became suspicious that there was more to the Tribal Princess' words than what was uttered.

"You remember when you said that you liked Sokka?" Yue asked her. "Don't tell him I said this just yet, but I once caught him calling out to you in his sleep; he was worried about you, hoping you were alright, that he couldn't forgive himself if anything happened to the other girl he cared about."

"The other girl he cared about? Me? But…he's with you."

"It's not wrong to care about someone else…just as much as that someone else cares about someone else just as much. Sokka can care about many people…just as he allows himself to care about you. Can you do me a favor?"

"What favor?"

"We'll still trying to end this world before summer's end, but I fear I can't protect Sokka all the time. Could you be there to help him whenever I can't? That favor."

Suki looked back at the cliff that led to the Western Air Temple where Sokka was resting with the others…and nodded that she would.

"Thank you again for rescuing me," Suki praised her.

"We're friends now, Suki. I'm sure you'd do the same for any of us," Yue responded.

"Yeah. I would."

A/N: There you go! How do you like me now? I had to look at my previous chapter that introduced the survivors of the Air Nomads, and found that I never gave a number to the survivors. Also, it wasn't said what became of Chit Sang's girlfriend and buddy, so in this, they're with him. In addition, I'm not sure if it'll work out in the end, but there could be something of chapter in which Sokka, Yue and Suki are to converse about what's between them…and what isn't. It'll be a while until the next chapter is up and running, but the downward spiral of Azula's madness has been put into acceleration! Review, please!


	19. The Princess and the Play

Creation began on 11-26-11

Creation ended on 12-19-11

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Play

The Western Air Temple saw more bending training lately with Aang, Katara, Yue, Toph and Zuko. It was a rotation between helping the Avatar master his skills with the other three elements and helping Yue learn more of the skills of her dual heritage.

As Zuko was teaching Aang more Firebending, like shooting streams and creating whips, Katara was teaching Yue the Octopus Form and Ice Shield lessons.

There were only nine days left until Sozin's Comet arrived to cause the Fire Nation's Firebending power increase and let them win the war in their favor.

"Your Ice Shields aren't thick enough, Yue," Katara told the Tribal Princess. "Put some more effort into it."

Yue, rotating between controlling her Octopus Form and Ice Shield against Katara's Ice Spears and Discs, but her concentration was lacking. The thought of Airbending was tempting to her, but this was Waterbending training only, so the desire was all the more seductive. So, under pressure, Yue unsheathed her sword and used Waterbending in conjunction with the blade, sending a wave of water from her Octopus Form and knocking Katara off her feet.

"Ooph!" Katara grunted, never seeing that.

Yue twirled her sword around in her hand before taking up another stance against her instructor, a smirk on her face.

"Nice counterattack, Yue," she praised as she got up. "Using your sword in conjunction with your bending is both resourceful and powerful."

"Grr!" They turned and saw Korra sitting near the Sky Bison mural. "Grrr!"

"I guess Korra's proud of you," said Katara again.

"I'll only get better with more practice," said Yue.

"Hey, you guys aren't gonna believe what we found out on Ember Island!" The girls heard Sokka, as he and Suki, now sporting a Fire Nation outfit of Yue's, since she now had enough to allow freedom of movement and Suki couldn't be seen in Fire Nation society in prison clothes, returned from their small journey to one the Fire Nation islands to see what was going on, and saw that he had a scroll in his hands. "There's a play about us on Ember Island."

He then showed the girls the scroll, and they saw the exaggerated pictures of Aang, Sokka, Katara and Zuko: Katara looked larger, Sokka seemed thinner, Aang looked more like a girl in a way and Zuko's scar was on the wrong side of his face.

"How is that possible?" Yue asked them.

Sokka turned the scroll poster around and read what was written, "_'The Boy in the Iceberg is a __is a new production from acclaimed playwright Pu-On Tim who scoured the globe, gathering information of the Avatar from the icy South Pole to the heart of Ba Sing Se. His sources include singing nomads, pirates, prisoners of war, and a surprisingly-knowledgeable merchant of cabbage.'_"

"'_Brought to you by the critically-acclaimed Ember Island Players.'_" Suki read the last line.

"Zuko says his mother took his family to see them years ago," Yue expressed, "and that they ruined _Love Amongst the Dragons_ each year. Though he prefers the term 'butcher'. Sokka, do you really think this is a good time to go see a play about ourselves?"

"A day at the Ember Island Theater's a good waste of a few good hours," Sokka expressed, "and this is the type of time-wasting nonsense I've been missing for a while. Plus, it'll be a good way to see how others perceive us."

_Well__… I guess it'll be alright,_ thought the Tribal Princess. _Who knows? I wonder how the world perceives me in this play?_

-x-

Upon arriving on Ember Island (and hiding Appa, Momo and Korra on the beach), Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Yue, Toph, Haru, Jet, Zuko, Smellerbee, Longshot, Pipsqueak and The Duke went up to the theater and found a good set of seats to occupy before the play began.

"Hey, why are we in the nosebleed section?" Toph asked. "My feet can't see a thing from up here."

"Don't worry," went Smellerbee, "I'll tell your feet what's happening."

As the lights dimmed down and the large stage curtains pulled back to reveal the stage, an imitation of an icy environment was displayed. A mockery of a canoe was pulled along the stage, occupied by a pair of actors dressed in blue shades of clothing similarly to those of the Water Tribes.

"Ooh," Yue heard Sokka gasp beside her on the left, as he and Katara, in the seat below his, were astonished; she assumed that those actors were portraying the day they met Aang, since she learned nearly everything from them.

"Sokka, my only brother. We constantly roam these icy South Pole seas, and yet never do we find anything fulfilling," the actress portraying Katara spoke to the actor portraying Sokka.

"All I want is a full feeling in my stomach, I'm starving!" Actor Sokka expressed, and the audience broke into fits of laughter.

"Is food the only thing on your mind?" Actress Katara asked him.

"Well, I'd like to get it out of my mind and into my mouth. I'm famished!" He answered her.

Yue looked at Sokka and expressed, "This guy sounds nothing like you. His humor is terrible. Your jokes are funnier."

"I think he's pegged," Toph gave her opinion.

Actress Katara then gave an overbearing speech about how they had to keep hope alive, even to their dying breath and broke out in fake tears.

"Well, that's just ridiculous," Katara expressed, unamused. "I sound nothing like that."

"Oh, man, this writer's got genius in him," expressed Toph.

Then, a bluish-white light illuminated the entire stage as the actors looked up as a large, iceberg-shaped prop was set into place. An internal prop in the shape of Aang's body was swaying from side to side with glowing eyes and an arrow on his head.

"It appears to be a boy frozen in ice," Actress Katara stated. "Perhaps for one-hundred years."

"But who could it be?" Actor Sokka wondered. "Who is the boy in the iceberg?"

_Oh, this is where they meet Aang and Appa for the first time, starting their journey to the North Pole,_ Yue realized, as she and Aang grabbed the railings in anticipation; Aang was wondering who was picked to portray himself.

Actress Katara performed a fake Waterbending move and the iceberg prop broke in half, releasing a cloud of smoke…and then…a person dressed like Aang was before Yue altered his outfit to fit him more freely after he grew to the point where his clothes didn't fit properly, anymore, jumped out of the cloud and winked at the audience in a pose, and similar to the actress portraying Katara, the makeup was heavy and somewhat exaggerated. The sight of the person had Yue looking a little confused, but Aang was repulsed.

"Who are you, frozen boy?" Actor Sokka asked.

"I'm the Avatar, silly, here to spread joy and fun back in the world," the actor, or rather, the actress portraying Aang responded.

"What?" Yue expressed, concerned. "Hold on a minute. Is…is that a woman playing Aang?"

"I wish it wasn't?" Aang said, not believing this was done to him on stage.

When three dancers wearing a large prop in the shape of Appa jumped out of the iceberg prop and ran around, along with the Katara and Sokka actors fake crying on Actress Aang's legs, Actress Aang made a joke that was no funnier than Actor Sokka's and expressed to being an incurable prankster, something that seemed out of character for Aang in real life.

"I don't do that!" Aang announced, irritated as the audience was laughing. "That's not what I'm like! And I'm not a woman!"

"Heh-heh-ha-ha!" Toph laughed, along with Smellerbee. "They nailed you, Twinkle Toes!"

As the play went on, Yue saw how Zuko's actor was portraying him as a stiff and humorless young man, desperate to capture the Avatar to regain his honor, with Iroh's actor a crazy glutton for cake, not tea. Then Actress Aang using a prop in the demented shape of Momo and faking his voice like he could actually talk, an actress portraying Suki in only three scenes and Actor Sokka asking if the Kyoshi Warrior uniform made his butt look fat, much to her and Sokka's disappointment, and Actor Bumi being portrayed as a riddle maker in an overstuffed suit made to look like muscles. The Tribal Princess was unimpressed with many of these scenes, including Actress Katara's stealing an oversized scroll prop to learn more advanced Waterbending from a group of pirates, expressing that it gave her so much hope that she couldn't resist.

"The Avatar is all mine now!" Actor Zuko had declared, having caught Actress Aang and imprisoned 'him' in his fortress, and then had to flee from the Blue Spirit, the so-called scourge of the Fire Nation.

"My hero!" Actress Aang expressed, hopping on top of the oversized Blue Spirit prop the actor wore and left the stage.

"That scene…was so messed up," Yue expressed, not knowing how much Aang and Zuko had agreed with her.

Of course, the next part of the play was that of Actress Katara and Actor Jet, who were watching as a flood prop washed away a Fire Nation village. Actor Jet was acting like a hero and Actress Katara appeared to be hitting on him.

"Oh, Jet, you're so bad," she told him, and then Yue noticed how Katara seemed embarrassed whilst Jet seemed disgusted with his portrayal.

_I'm beginning to hate this play, _some of them had thought to themselves.

The play's shortest scene so far was that of flying over the Great Divide, which left Yue wondering why the writer didn't use the actual information that Aang, Sokka and Katara had actually crossed the large canyon. But that didn't have any change of opinion for Yue once she saw her portrayal in the writer's point of view: She was the only woman that took Actor Sokka's mind off of food…and she had been killed off temporarily by Zhao's actor. Her spirit, after kissing Actor Sokka, flew away on a crescent moon prop and promised him that she would return.

"Hey," went Suki, "you guys never told me that Sokka made out with the Moon Spirit."

Yue then expressed, "That's because that never happened. Zhao tried to kill the Moon Spirit, but Aang stopped him. My portrayal's not very involved, either."

"I wasn't even thinking about food when I met you," Sokka added, and then the scene changed to one of the biggest happenings in the history of the Northern Water Tribe: Actress Aang, dressed up in a giant Ocean Spirit costume, holding a doll version of Zhao in 'his' hands, attacked the navy props as 'he' declared that the Avatar was back to save the world.

The audience, minus the Gaang, applauded the ending of the play's first half.

-x-

"…I have to agree with you, Zuko," Yue expressed, as the Gaang had stepped out of the auditorium to relax and enjoy refreshments, "this intermission is the only good part of the play. This Pu On Tim certainly didn't do his research right. Sokka's viewed as a guy that has only jokes about meat and Katara as a preachy crybaby that gives overbearing speeches of hope all the time…and my character was killed, temporarily, by Zhao! Hello! I'm still here! This is a nightmare."

"At least you and Sokka's actors look a little like you," expressed Aang, still unhappy about his portrayal in the play. "That woman playing the Avatar doesn't resemble me at all."

"Actually, due to the outfit, I couldn't tell you two apart," went Haru.

"Come on," said Smellerbee. "They're gonna start with the next part of the play. Might as well see what your adventures in the Earth Kingdom are seen by the world."

They all got up off the steps and returned to the play, just as it began.

"Here we are," went Actress Yue, having kept her promise to Actor Sokka that she would return from being the Moon Spirit, "in the Earth Kingdom."

"Well, I'd better see if I can find an Earthbending teacher," said Actress Aang, and used a small prop shaped like Aang's glider and flew around the audience for seven seconds before returning to the stage.

"Oh, great," Toph expressed, "this must be when I show up."

"I've searched all over the town, but I couldn't find an Earthbending Master," Actress Aang told the others. "Are there any here at all?"

"This is it," Toph cheered, and suddenly, one of the boulder props was lifted up near the actors.

"You can't find an Earthbender from the sky," said a new actor, tossing the prop away, "you have to look underground."

The sight of Toph's portrayal had Yue, Sokka, Haru and Suki laughing like crazy, with Zuko dropping his parchment in shocked awe.

"Who are you?" Actress Aang asked the actor.

"My name is Toph, because it sounds like 'tough', which is exactly what I am." Actor Toph answered.

"Wait a minute," went the real Toph. "I sound like…a guy. A really buff guy."

"If this is how they view you in the play, you must be disappointed," said Suki to her.

"Are you kidding me?" Toph asked, not unhappy about her portrayal at all. "I wouldn't have cast it any other way! At least it's a guy rather than a flying bald lady."

Aang, on the other hand, was very irritated to hear that.

"So, you're blind?" Actress Aang asked Actor Toph.

"Heh-heh, I can see you doing that," Actor Toph expressed. "I can see everything you see. But I don't see the way you see. I release sonic waves from my mouth."

The actor then screamed, hurting the ears of most of the audience and the other actors, but the real Toph didn't care at all for the noise.

"There," he told the other actors. "I got a pretty good look at you."

The Earth Kingdom portion of the play went on with the scene in which Zuko and Iroh's actors split up because Actor Iroh thought Actor Zuko was taking his hair's growth too far, the group's encounter with Actress Azula and her getting away by tricking Actor Zuko about his honor, the drill the Fire Nation built to penetrate the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se, the Kyoshi Warriors surrendering to Azula and her friends, and Actor Jet becoming hypnotized to serve Long Feng, who masqueraded as the Earth King, and was then attacked by a hollow boulder prop that buried him in the ground in front of the other actors present. This left Zuko wondering what just happened.

"Hey," he asked Sokka, "did…did they kill Jet?"

"That's not what happened," Sokka expressed. "Yue had saved him from Long Feng's attack on him. I guess the playwright didn't hear of it."

Then the scene changed to the underground prison environment that held Actress Katara and Actor Zuko, and it looked like Actress Katara was trying to hit on Actor Zuko, much to the Avatar and Tribal Princess' respective disgust that they kept to themselves.

"Don't make fun of me," Actor Zuko told Actress Katara. "And I thought you were the Avatar's girl."

Yue looked over at Aang, and saw him nodding in the positive; just like before in Ba Sing Se and the day of the invasion, she could see how smitten he was over the Waterbending Master.

"The Avatar?" She looked back to Actress Katara, who seemed to laugh at the idea. "Why, he's like a little brother to me. I certainly don't think of him in a romantic way."

_Maybe you don't,_ thought Yue, who glimpsed a view of Katara, wondering what she really thought of Aang, _but maybe she does._

"…And besides, how could he ever find out about this?" Actress Katara embraced Actor Zuko, which made the Avatar get up and leave the viewing box.

"Uh, I just remembered that I barely ate," Yue made up a ruse to work as a half-truth; she was getting hungry again, but she was also curious about Aang right now. "Anybody want anything?"

"Fire Flakes and Fire Gummies, please," Sokka requested, and she left.

Once she got the requested refreshments, she went to find Aang; she was sure that Sokka could wait a few minutes for food to return. She found him outside on one of the balconies, looking at the sunset.

"You wanna talk about it?" She asked him.

"Huh?" Aang turned around and saw Yue slowly approaching the railing.

"It looks like we both dislike this play that portrays us in ways that aren't entirely true."

"Yeah," he agreed with her. "I'm overreacting, aren't I?"

"No, I don't believe you are. This lousy playwright probably made up a scene where the person getting shot down by Azula was you instead of me, to give the play more credibility. We'd probably enjoy it like Toph does if there was more truth to what we've done."

"Maybe if I hadn't put on hold the unlocking of my final Chakra, I'd probably be in the Avatar State by now." Aang told her.

"Aang, I must confess to something I've not told anybody…but…on the day of the invasion… I saw you kiss Katara," Yue revealed.

"You…saw me?"

"I didn't really expect you to actually do something like that, but…it reminded me of a similar act that happened back home."

"Which was?"

"The first time I kissed Sokka. It was similar to when I saw you kiss Katara."

"Was this…the day Katara fought Master Pakku?"

"Yes."

"That explains why Sokka seemed hurt when he returned to the hut, but he wouldn't talk about what happened while he was out."

"Well, I, uh… I'm not exactly sure if I have any good advice on what you should do, but maybe you should talk to her, let her know how you feel. I see the way you look at her…from a distance, and you seem like a person whose affection is like stone and ice: Solid."

"Maybe, Yue. Maybe."

The Tribal Princess then looked at her hands and the boxes of flakes and gummies, reminded that Sokka was probably losing his patience, and chuckled.

"I'd better get these to Sokka now," she told Aang, and left the balcony so that he could be alone for a while longer to work out his problem with himself.

-x-

"…So, they had Aang getting shot down by Azula instead of me?" Yue asked Sokka, since she missed the last part of the Earth Kingdom portion of the play, once he ate his small share of the Fire Gummies and Fire Flakes.

"It was messed up," he confessed to her. "The thought of seeing anyone of you getting shot down by Azula is too extreme. Even the thought of seeing my portrayal's assault Azula's would bring up a bad memory of how things went down in Ba Sing Se."

Of course, Yue accepted that, while Sokka was right about what was spoken, Azula getting assaulted after assaulting the others would've been extreme, Azula deserved what she got, even if she no longer had the scar to prove she had been harmed by Sokka's boomerang.

Everybody was walking around a bit, going to either the balconies for air or the restrooms. The Fire Nation portion of the play had started seven minutes ago, and Yue and Suki were some of the few members of the Gaang that went back to the auditorium to see how it was expressed on stage. So far, Aang had recovered from his lightning assault, Katara was discovered to be the Painted Lady, Sokka and Yue got swords and there was the belief that Combustion Man had been killed by them prior to the invasion, which was false; the Fire Nation assassin was killed after the invasion. But what caught Yue off guard once Sokka had returned, just as the invasion portion was beginning, was that his portrayal had asked Actor Toph if he and Actress Aang had what could be considered a rocky relationship.

"Huh?" She gasped, feeling that the question sounded like something that Sokka would actually say. "Sokka, this guy sounds a bit like you now."

"Suki got me backstage and I spoke with the actor," Sokka explained.

"Suki? You actually got Sokka backstage?" She asked the Kyoshi Warrior leader.

"I'm part of an elite group of female warriors who has trained for many years in the art of stealth," Suki told her, sounding serious, but then she smiled. "It was easy to get him backstage."

The play went on to the Fire Lord's palace, where Actor Zuko betrayed his father and sister in favor of his uncle's advice to restore balance to the Four Nations, since he realized that he made a mistake when he betrayed Iroh back in Ba Sing Se, which, in reality, never did happen.

"Looks like everything's tied up to the present now," said Sokka, yawning, getting up and stretching his limbs. "Time to go."

"Sokka, the play's not over yet," said Smellerbee to him.

"But it must be over," he told her, "unless…we're in the future."

"Or maybe the playwright was asked to include a specific ending for the play," Haru suggested.

And true to the Earth Kingdom villager's words, the play continued on…to the worst possible conclusion that never was…or hadn't been encountered by the Gaang yet. The audience saw how the arrival of Sozin's Comet, nine days from tonight, had made the Firebenders stronger than the sun did, and the battle between Zuko and Azula. It was a near-dazzling scene of fake Firebending using colored streamers and explosive powders to create the simulation of actual explosions.

"Honor!" Actor Zuko screamed, as a giant, Firebending prop used by Actress Azula engulfed him and he fell through a trapdoor, leaving the audience to cheer and applaud his defeat.

The Gaang looked at Zuko, who was left stunned at how he was defeated in the play.

"So, the Avatar thinks he can defeat me with his mastery of the elements?" Actor Ozai, who was hideous in his appearance, nothing like he did in real life, and just as brutal as Azula's portrayal was, asked Actress Aang, who was wielding a different gilder prop that seemed larger than the one she used to fly around the Earth Kingdom setting.

"That's right," she told the Fire Lord, "and you're going down!"

"Wrong. It is you who are going down. Thanks to the comet, I'm invincible!"

The very idea of the Fire Lord actually drawing power from the feared comet was almost disturbing to Yue, who was certain that Aang, the only person that could ensure that balance was restored to the world, was more than a match to stop Ozai…once he mastered all the skills of the remaining three elements he needed, that is. As the battle commenced, the Tribal Princess was a little impressed at how Aang's portrayal was holding her own against the Fire Lord, but then her eyes widened as the Fire Lord's portrayal unleashed a giant stream of fire in the shape of a curtain prop, which caught Actress Aang and wrapped around her.

"No!" Actress Aang howled as she fell to the floor, defeated.

"We've done it!" Actor Ozai praised himself. "At long last, the dreams of my father and his father before him…have finally been realized! The world is all mine!"

The audience, excluding the Ganng, who was left speechless, applauded the play, as the curtains closed and the actors left.

-x-

The flight back to the Western Air Temple was nothing short of quiet in the night.

"That…wasn't a very good play," said Zuko to the others.

"I'll say," added The Duke.

"Same here," Pipsqueak added.

"It was horrible," went Jet, still edgy over the fact that they killed his character on stage.

"You said it," Toph added in, who only agreed because of how the play ended.

"But the effects were decent," said Sokka, who flew with Yue and Suki on Korra while the others flew on Appa.

Yue looked back to face him…and just smiled.

"Yeah, the effects were good," she agreed, "as well as the props."

"Your jokes later in the play were great, too," added Suki.

-x-

"Eight days now," said Yue, sitting on the ledge of the temple, contemplating the unknown future ahead that nobody could foretell the exact outcome.

"Short time till the arrival of the comet," Aang expressed, sitting next to her. "Long time to wait."

"Did you talk with her?" She asked, wondering how the conversation went.

"We spoke," he explained, "but it didn't end on a positive note."

Yue placed her left hand on Aang's right shoulder, apologetically; despite having a strong sense of spirituality now for her dual heritage, her sense of advice was rather lacking.

"But your advice was helpful," he told the princess. "Talking to her was still good, even if the results weren't great."

"Maybe you're supposed to wait until the war's over," she suggested. "That way, there's no distractions between the future and the present."

"Maybe. Say, where'd Sokka run off to?"

"He left to go train with Suki."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"No. Everybody needs to train with somebody…and somebody needs to show the Fire Lord the advantages of riding on a ball made of air."

"Heh-heh-heh! Yeah, somebody does."

AN: I shall end this chapter here for now. I won't be able to get you another update until after the holidays because I'll be working on other projects that are progressing quite well, including the idea that is to combine the last four episodes of the third season into one chapter with amazing results that will lead to the grand finale. I hope this will ease your troubled minds about that so-called bad year omen coming up in a few days. Peace be with you!


	20. The Princess and the Avatar

Creation began on 12-19-11

Creation ended on 08-31-12

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Avatar

AN: I had a short period of trouble to think of an adequate title for this chapter and a much longer time trying to write the plot down. I'm putting together all four episodes in this…but I won't end it with that. Here goes what will be, potentially, the penultimate chapter in my series of having Yue live. Now, let's travel further into the inferno!

Ever since the day they saw the Ember Island Players and their performance of _The Boy in the Iceberg_, the Gaang was in varying levels of low esteem over how the end of the war could end in a potential victory to restore the Four Nations…or to destroy the balance of the world forever. Very little activity was seen at the Western Air Temple; all the Avatar had done in the few hours of the last three days was teach the Air Nomads some of the skills he had learned or made that they hadn't been able to perform themselves, along with more Fire and Earthbending training. Nearly everyone else was laying around the temple without much inspiration to do anything.

"You gotta be more ferocious! Imagine striking your opponent in the heart!" Zuko drilled Aang in his Firebending training.

"That's difficult," Aang responded; he didn't wish to imagine actually striking somebody anywhere that was fatal.

Aang had spread his arms out and roared ferociously as he bended fire from his hands and mouth in a fierce display, so fierce in his pose that Momo ran behind Yue for cover.

"Hey, who wants a nice, cool glass of watermelon juice?" Katara, who had gone looking for fruit by the nearby trees of the beach, asked, as she had found some ripe watermelons.

That set Aang off from his training and he went over to get a drink.

"Ooh, ooh! Me! Me!" He cheered happily, but Zuko stopped him.

"Hold on!" Zuko told him. "The lesson's not over!"

"Oh, come on, Zuko," went Suki, as she, Sokka and Yue were enjoying their watermelon juices. "You've been training since this morning, which was five hours ago. Take a break."

Zuko gave in and then commented on how everybody was being lazy and acting like Snail-Sloths due to the lack of activity around the temple.

As Aang was enjoying his drink, Yue believed Zuko a little on how there was little activity from people, even the Air Nomads were less lively than usual after learning some of the Airbending moves that Aang knew.

"We should head down to the beach and flex our limbs," she suggested.

"Better idea," went Sokka, setting his drink down. "Beach party!"

"Oh, yeah, that'll get some life outta people," said Suki.

-x-

SPLASH! Several of the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe soldiers were playing around in the water as they enjoyed themselves, much to the shock of Chief Hakoda, who hadn't experienced much fun in years since his childhood because of the war.

The Air Nomads, who hadn't strayed away from the Air Temple in many years since the Fire Nation attacked them, hadn't even experienced the joy of having fun in the water. Aang had to show them how to run along the sand and create sculptures and splash around while Katara bended a small board of ice to surf the waves, careful not to hit Sokka by accident as he collected bits of seaweed and buckets of water to do something with them.

"Check out our sculptures of Appa and Korra," said The Duke, as he a Pipsqueak had gathered much sand and driftwood to create their artwork of the two Sky Bison, which had said Sky Bison growling in awe at how they looked as sand and wood.

"Not bad, Freedom Fighters," praised Toph, sounding like she had something to show, "but, because the Moon Maiden suggested it, I've been working on how to Sandbend. You're all gonna love this."

She raised her hands up, spread her feet apart, and bended the sand in front of her and created a small dust cloud that revealed a small replica of Ba Sing Se made of sand, all of it well-built and detailed.

"Wow," praised Smellerbee, looking at the sand figures, "you even made the Earth King and his pet bear, Bosco."

As most of the people enjoyed themselves, Yue and Suki, who, despite much workout that could be achieved through recreation, were just sitting on the sand and basking in the sunlight, wondering what Sokka was doing with all that water and seaweed he had collected.

"Try and top that, Sokka," Toph challenged the warrior, who was rushing to complete his new masterpiece like crazy.

"Check it out!" He declared, showing his work.

"Is that a… Some sort of a blob creature split in half and flattened?" Jet asked him, unsure of whether to laugh or feel disgusted.

"No," Sokka defended his masterpiece, "it's Yue and Suki."

The masterpiece was an exaggerated-yet-detailed sculpting of Yue on the left, laying down, curved and with her head at Suki's feet, with Suki on the right with her head near Yue's feet; the way they were posed seemed to reflect the way the Moon and Ocean Spirits circled each other in their eternal dance to maintain balance between the Water Tribes and the world itself.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha!" Jet, Smellerbee, The Duke, Pipsqueak and Toph all laughed; while Sokka's art was detailed, they just didn't see the girls that mattered to him because of the sand.

"Yue, we'll understand perfectly if you break up with him over this," Toph told the Tribal Princess, who looked at the artwork and saw the beauty.

"Eh-heh-heh," she chuckled. "I think it's very sweet."

"Likewise," added Suki, which made Sokka feel light on his feet.

"But…it barely looks like you two," said The Duke.

"You're not looking hard enough," Sokka told him, and pointed towards the detailing of Yue's head in the sand.

"Aaaaahh!" They then heard Aang scream, and saw him running away from Zuko, who was now Firebending at him as he gave chase to the Avatar.

"What the… What's going on with them?" Yue questioned, and got up and went after them as they ran straight toward the Air Temple.

-x-

It was supposed to be a good time, but the next thing Aang knew, Zuko was trying scorch him as he ran back to the safety of the Air Temple.

"What are you doing?!" Aang demanded of Zuko.

"Teaching you a lesson," he answered him.

As Zuko shot fireball after fireball at the Avatar, they had reached the underground Air Temple space where one of the tower structures that had Combustion Man on it had shattered into pieces, creating the would-be resting place for the former Fire Nation assassin. Aang had Airbended up toward the highest point of the wreckage and stood his ground against his Firebending instructor.

"Get a grip before I blast you off the ground!" He threatened.

"Go ahead," Zuko insisted. "Take your best shot!"

And then, Zuko, to show that he wasn't going to hold back on his assault on Aang, shot two large streams of fire from both his hands. This caused Aang to perform a feat of Airbending that wasn't like the other forms he achieved: From his hands, he unleashed two streams of wind, blocking the flames, and then fired a third stream of wind toward Zuko himself, blowing backwards until he hit the dirt.

"Enough!" Aang demanded, having beaten Zuko.

As the others arrived, Zuko got back up and said, "I was expecting fire, not air."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," went Yue. "You were still training him? You could've hurt him had he almost not took you serious. What was up with that, Zuko?"

"We don't have time for beach parties," he explained his reason for attacking Aang. "Sozin's Comet's arriving in four days."

"You ever heard of the calm before the storm?" Yue asked him, to which everybody looked at her. "What? There's always calms between storms. Things are good…before they go bad after a period of non-violence and recreation."

"True," Sokka agreed with her.

"Sorry, my uncle tried to explain it to me once, but I was too hard-headed to make any sense of it," said Zuko, wishing he had listened more to the concept of calms between storms.

-x-

Later in the night, Yue awoke to the sound of water being splashed around by fountain, and thought she could hear someone calling her name.

_Yue… Yue…_ She heard it again, and went over to the fountain, seeing, just like the day in Ba Sing Se when they were looking for Appa, Tui and La.

But the Moon and Ocean Spirits weren't circling each other in their eternal dance; they were facing her, like they had something important to tell her.

_Tui and La? What are you doing here?_ She wondered.

_You must stop the Fire Nation,_ she heard La's voice. _The Earth Kingdom is in danger._

_What do you mean?_ She asked him.

_On the day of the comet's arrival, the Fire Lord is planning to raze the Earth Kingdom to the ground, and from the ashes, rebuild it as their extension of the Fire Nation. _Tui informed her.

_But that's insane,_ went Yue. _Why would they do that to the Earth Kingdom? After they took Ba Sing Se, they took the whole nation._

_Not fully,_ said La. _There have been rebellions caused by the benders of the Earth Kingdom, resisting the hold placed upon them._

Tui then floated out of the water and levitated in front of Yue's head.

_The Fire Lord must be stopped before he can burn all of the Earth Kingdom into the next world,_ she told her.

Seconds later, the Tribal Princess was surrounded by flames!

"Aaaaahh!" She screamed, and fell into darkness.

FLASH! Yue woke up, and found herself next to Korra, who continued to sleep peacefully into the night. What she had experienced earlier was only a dream…but a very important dream given by the Moon and Ocean Spirits.

-x-

"…So the Moon and Ocean Spirits told you that Fire Lord Ozai is planning to use Sozin's Comet to enhance his Firebenders and burn down the Earth Kingdom?" Sokka asked the morning after, making sure he heard everything Yue told was accurate.

"Benevolent spirits never lie, Sokka," she told him, having informed all of the Gaang and Chief Hakoda and Bato. "Now, there's a reason to be concerned about the world. Big time."

"How do you defeat the Fire Lord, who's the toughest Firebender there is?" Aang asked; this was mostly because he didn't want to resort to violence, as it was a direct violation of everything the monks taught him over one-hundred years ago.

"Take him out," answered Zuko; his knowledge of how the present day Fire Nation deal with their enemies unchanged. "Without the Fire Lord, the Fire Nation falls into disorder."

"But a Fire Lord is required to maintain order, aren't they?" Sokka asked him. "After the separation of the Fire Lord from the Fire Sages, the sages needed to establish the position of the Great Sage in order to facilitate the imbalance caused by the original Fire Lord's desire to hold more power."

Everyone, minus Yue, Zuko and Aang, looked at him with awed expressions.

"He read about the history of the Fire Lord's beginnings," revealed Yue. "Zuko, suppose we did do away with Ozai, then what? Would you be in line to succeed him as the Fire Lord…or…would Azula be next?"

"Knowing Father, he'd pass the position onto Azula," he answered, still retaining some bitterness against many of the things Ozai said to him.

"Her?" Katara uttered. "But you're older than she is. You're the Crown Prince."

"And Iroh was the Crown Prince before Azulon's passing…and my father usurped the throne from him," he reminded her; Aang had revealed everything about what Ozai had revealed about his ascension to the throne, which also inspired the hope that his mother, Ursa, was truly alive somewhere.

-x-

The mural of the Sky Bison brought some comfort to Aang, who still found it challenging to make a choice on how to deal with the Fire Lord. He had continued to practice his Firebending and had mastered some more Earthbending techniques, along with his complete mastery over Waterbending, but he really didn't want to make the choice to kill Ozai, even if he did confess and agree that the current Fire lord was a horrible person that the world would be better off without.

"If it makes you feel any better, Aang," went Yue, wielding her staff, "I'm not expecting you to kill the Fire Lord. I'm just expecting you to find a way to stop him that leaves everyone happy."

He turned to face her and said, "Thanks, Yue. How goes your bending training?"

"I've managed to achieve the method of pulling water out of the air from Katara…but there's one Airbending skill I cannot perform."

"Which is?"

"Your Air Scooter," and with that, she set her staff down and Airbended a ball of air in front of them. "Every time I try to get on it, I fall off. You make it seem easy to do."

Aang then hopped onto the Air Scooter and rode it around the Tribal Princess before it ran out of currents to support its shape.

"The key to riding the Air Scooter is that you have to balance on it, like it's a top," he explained to her. "My friends from before the war had a hard time mastering the skill, as well, but they managed to do so as they practiced on."

_Okay,_ the princess thought. _Balance on it like it's a top. Okay, that shouldn't be too hard now._

She created another Air Scooter and then jumped onto it, standing on her left leg and moved it around Aang slowly to avoid falling.

"Yeah, you're doing it, Yue," he praised her.

She then moved a little faster, getting the hang of the Air Scooter.

"Ha…ha-ha! Hey, look at me!" She cheered, letting herself go. "I'm riding on air!"

"Hey, what's going on over here?" The voice of Sokka came, who showed up and saw Yue on the Air Scooter. "Oh!"

"Whoa!" Yue panicked and got off the ball of air before she crashed into him. "Whew."

-x-

The Air Temple was very quiet now that everybody was asleep, but the sound of Momo chirping woke Yue up and made her aware of something unusual: Aang was walking away from the temple in a manner that reminded Yue of the way her father, Chief Arnook, would sleepwalk toward the Spirit Oasis.

"Aang?" She questioned quietly, and got up to follow him.

The Avatar walked down to the beach and, as Yue saw to her surprise, swam toward an island that wasn't there days before. So she followed him, accompanied by Momo, who was worried about his master and friend.

-x-

"…Grrraugh!" The roaring of Appa woke up Sokka, who gasped, realizing that something wasn't right with the state of the temple.

"Grraugh!" Korra roared, seeing that Yue wasn't present.

"What's going on?" Sokka asked Katara.

"We can't find Aang, Yue or Momo," she answered him. "We looked everywhere around the Air Temple, and Appa and Korra are getting agitated by their disappearances."

Sokka recalled how Aang was trying not to show his anger over Appa's theft by the Sandbenders in the Si Wong Desert, but when they saw the ones that took Appa, he became convinced that day was the only one where he'd seen an Avatar enraged by an emotional and troublesome matter. But this time, it was Appa that was angry about his owner's disappearance…with Korra showing just as much unhappiness over Yue's.

_Where could they have run off to? _He wondered.

-x-

"…Ungh…hmm," went Yue, waking up and finding herself in a forest. "Oh, Spirit Oasis, where am I?"

Recalling the events of last night, she remembered following Aang to this strange island that just appeared out of thin air and then she tripped and fell onto the ground, losing consciousness.

"Aang! Momo!" She called out, wandering through the forest, seeing only several small animals wandering about the jungle growth. "Aang! Momo!"

"…Yue…" A response came; it was Aang.

Yue found him over by some smaller trees and a small pond.

"Aang, what possessed you to come to an island like this?" She asked him.

"This is an island?" He asked back.

"Yes. Aang, you must've been sleepwalking when I saw you get up last night. I followed you, and you were heading to this island that just…showed up out of nowhere."

"But… What if this is just the Spirit World?" He suggested.

"No, I don't believe so. If it were the Spirit World, I would feel a little different, like my insides were stretched out a little too thin. I felt that way when I entered the Spirit World for the first time and met Avatar Kuruk." She explained her experience to him.

"What if it's just me in the Spirit World?"

"I probably wouldn't be able to see you or converse with you…and neither would Momo."

The Winged Lemur chirped a bit and then climbed onto Yue and rested on her right shoulder.

"Have you tried to bend yet?" Yue asked him.

Aang then turned right and sent a gust of air out into the nothingness of the forest.

"We're not in the Spirit World, Aang. We wouldn't be able to bend, otherwise." Yue told him. "Come on. We got to get back to the Air Temple. Sozin's Comet arrives the day after tomorrow, and we need to be ready to stop the Fire Lord."

They traveled to what they thought would be the beach on the edge of the forest, but when they got there, they saw only a large body of water that seemed to stretch for miles.

"Yue…please…tell me we're not lost out in the middle of the ocean, are we?" Aang asked her.

"Okay, I won't tell you," she responded, wanting this to be nothing but a bad dream.

-x-

The rest of the Gaang, with no other options on how to find Aang, Yue and Momo, decided to trust Zuko when he felt he knew of one person with the means to find them. Traveling straight to the northwestern region of the Earth Kingdom on Appa, Sokka was hoping that this person could locate wherever it was that Aang and Yue had disappeared to.

"There it is," they heard Zuko, as he pointed toward a building surrounded by some tall trees.

As they entered the building, they were greeted to the sights and sounds of people in a small brawl against a woman and music in the background. The woman, in particular, was the same woman that Sokka and Katara had encountered earlier on with Aang as they were traveling toward the North Pole.

"Hey, she's that woman with the giant mole," he expressed.

"What giant mole?" Suki asked him. "Her skin's flawless."

"No, she's got this giant mole creature that she rides," he explained in better detail.

"Her Shirshu," added Zuko, knowing a little about the creature. "It's the only animal I could think of that might find them."

"I don't know who this June lady is," went Toph, using her Earthbending to see the woman beat up a few men while drinking out a cup, "but I like her already."

-x-

The only thing Yue felt was helpful about this strange island in the middle of the vast ocean was that it had some food available for her and Aang to eat to fill their stomachs with nourishment to replenish their bodies of energy. But so far, they hadn't found any structures that would indicate civilization or even the presence of another person besides themselves.

_What could bring Aang here to an island that seems like it doesn't belong anywhere in the Four Nations? _She wondered.

"Yue?" Aang broke her train of thought, as the Avatar and she stopped in front of a strange pit shaped like a hexagon, with strange symbols running along the sides and center.

"It's some sort of hexagon," she uttered, climbing down to stand on the surface of it. "That's strange. Aang, this doesn't feel like it's made of rock. See if you can Earthbend it."

Aang jumped onto the strange surface and performed an Earthbending move, but the ground didn't respond to his bending. It wasn't made of any material manipulable to Earthbending. And yet, the Tribal Princess felt a strange presence of an ancient wonder here; she couldn't explain it, but it might've been a spiritual place had once resided here before the forest had taken it back.

"What are we going to do, Yue?" Aang asked her as he sat down on the ground. "We don't know where we are, we can't find anybody else here, and we have no means to find our way back to the Air Temple. I wish we had someone knowledgeable to speak with. I…I wish I had Roku to talk to."

Then, an idea suddenly struck Yue!

"Aang, that's it!" She spoke up. "We can speak to Roku!"

"Yeah, that's right!" The Avatar realized; as the incarnation of the planet in human form, he had the power to communicate with his past lives.

The princess waited calmly as the Avatar meditated on the soul of his previous incarnation from the Fire Nation, and saw the world around them dim as the young Air Nomad's body unleashed a puff of smoke that materialized in front of them and assumed the characteristics of the aged Fire Nation Avatar from over one-hundred years ago.

"You're right, Aang, Yue. All of the Avatars of the past, all of their experience and wisdom…is available to you…if you look deep within," Roku expressed.

"Avatar Roku," Yue greeted, "we need to know where we are. Have you ever been to an island like this one before?"

"I have not," the past Avatar answered her. "But I can see that you two are lost in more ways than one right this moment."

"We are," responded Aang, wanting to know what to do once he faced the Fire Lord without resorting to outright murder of the dangerous, Firebending leader of the archipelago.

-x-

The Duke and Smellerbee were getting worried about Korra. The baby Sky Bison had never been so agitated before since she chose Yue as her companion for life. She spent much of the day sniffing the glider that was given to her companion by Teo after the revelation of her Air Nomad ancestry was made known, and wouldn't even permit others to touch it.

"Do any other Flying Bison behave like this?" The Boulder asked an Air Nomad woman that was nursing an infant.

"No," she answered him, "none of our other bison have shown such agitation. This is only seen…when the bison are extremely worried for the life companions. If something terrible happened to the Tribal Princess, the bison could become burdened with grief. Bison are very protective of their companions."

And Korra was no exception to that rule. She was deeply concerned with Yue's protection. In her mind, Yue came first, even though she herself was just a calf. She sniffed the glider again for the umpteenth time, but this time…something was different.

"Grr," she grumbled, looking up at the sky…and then took off! "Grr!"

"Hey, hey!" One of the Earth Kingdom soldiers gasped. "Where's she going?"

"Something must've sparked her temper," said Smellerbee, seeing the bison fly very fast for a baby.

-x-

"…What do you mean, they don't exist?" Sokka asked June, as her Shirshu, Nyla, was unable to locate Aang or Yue through the Avatar's staff and one of the Tribal Princess' Fire Nation skirts she had acquired with the money from the scams performed with Toph and the others, respectively. "You mean…they're dead?"

This was something the boy from the South Pole didn't want to believe at all, but had to consider.

"No," June answered him. "We'd be able to track them down if they were dead. It's a real puzzle on me. Nyla's never been unable to track a person."

"If we can't find them, then the Avatar can't face the Fire Lord and save the Four Nations," went Jet, wondering if there was anyone else that could face the Fire Lord and defeat him.

"There might be one other person who could beat the Fire Lord," went Zuko, now considering his uncle as the last option for saving the world, and pulled out one of his uncle's sandals.

"You actually saved your uncle's smelly sandal?" Katara nearly retched because of the strong odor.

"I think it's actually sweet," said Toph, as Nyla sniffed the item for Iroh's scent.

-x-

"…Hmm?" Aang noticed that Yue seemed disturbed by something.

"Yue?" He asked the princess.

"Sorry," she apologized; she had thought for a moment that she heard Korra, which would've been impossible, as they had no idea where they were.

Their conversation with Avatar Roku on advice on what Aang should do when he faced Ozai had brought to the current Avatar less-than-satisfactory results. Roku had explained that in his past, he tried to be disciplined and show restraint, only to have it all backfire because of his friend, Fire Lord Sozin, taking advantage of his merciful nature. But while Roku didn't actually say that Aang had to kill Ozai to restore balance to the Four Nations, he did tell Aang that he had to be decisive in his choices.

Now Aang sought out the wisdom of the Earth Kingdom Avatar, Kyoshi, who materialized in the same way as Roku had in front of Aang and Yue.

"In my day," she stated to them, "Chin, the Conqueror, had threatened to throw the world out of balance… But I stopped him, and the world entered a long era of peace."

"But you didn't really kill Chin, Avatar Kyoshi," went Yue to her. "Because of his stubbornness to get out of harm's way, he fell to his death, technically."

"Personally, I don't really see the difference," Kyoshi told them, "but I assure you, I would've done whatever was necessary to stop Chin. I offer you this wisdom, Aang: Only justice will bring peace."

As her spiritual presence disappeared in front of them, they were left feeling bitter.

"Aang, I get that she was one of your past lives and all," Yue told Aang, "but I don't believe we should've asked her for guidance."

"I agree with you," he responded, wishing he hadn't asked Kyoshi. "Let's try the Avatar before her."

"That would be Avatar Kuruk. Maybe he can give us an answer that's helpful in dealing with Ozai."

The Air Nomad then meditated again, and the spiritual essence of the Northern Water Tribe Avatar manifested in front of them.

-x-

The rest of the Gaang was confused to how Iroh could be in the last place they saw him in before they ventured into the Fire Nation, which was Ba Sing Se, the Earth Kingdom capital. If Azula had the corrupted Dai Li agents capture him only to take him back to the Fire Nation as a prisoner, why would June's Shirshu, Nyla, track the Firebending Master to the metropolis of the Earth Nation?

_But if June says that he's somewhere beyond the interior of the Outer Wall, what choice do we have but to believe her?_ Sokka thought, hoping that wherever Yue was with Aang, she was at least okay.

As the group slept as peacefully as they could in the night, Toph's Earthbending alerted her to the presence of people not with the group within her Earth Tent. There was somebody manipulating something that made Appa agitated, so she bended her tent away, revealing to herself and the others that had awoken from their slumber a circle of fire.

"What's going on out here?" She asked.

"Firebenders?" Jet suggested.

"No," went Sokka, looking past the flames and seeing four people atop four pillars of stone. "Those people behind the flames."

The walls of fire soon died down, revealing the four individuals that the rest of the Gaang had seen in the past before the invasion of the Fire Nation that didn't go well.

"Well, well, well," went the voice of Bumi. "Look at who we have here."

-x-

"…Well, so much for Kuruk's advice on how to deal with the Fire Lord," said Aang to Yue, having finished the conversation with the Northern Water Tribe Avatar that reincarnated into Kyoshi.

"We must actively shape our own destinies to shape the destiny of the world," Yue uttered; while Kuruk's words of advice didn't actually say that Aang had to kill Ozai, it was anyone's guess on what the Northern Water Tribe Avatar had meant by that. "Well, he's right about shaping our destinies to shape out the destiny of the world, so that could mean, for you, Aang, that you should continue to find an alternative in dealing with Ozai that doesn't go against your Air Nomad beliefs."

"Hey, that's it, Yue!" Aang gasped, having an epiphany.

"What's it, Aang?"

"Maybe an Air Nomad Avatar will understand and give me a solution to beating the Fire Lord."

"Oh. That's worth a shot."

The princess sat back down and watched as the current Avatar meditated on the previous incarnation of the Avatar whose nationality was of the Air Nomads.

_I wonder if this Air Nomad Avatar before Aang has the answer that we're seeking,_ she thought, curious as to whether or not this one might have truly been the person that had a hand in her current existence.

Aang's body unleashed smoke for the fourth time…and it took on the shape and appearance of a young woman that bore an uncanny resemblance to the statue that Yue and Aang had seen at the Western Air Temple; this was Avatar Yangchen, the younger twin sister of Sister Eli.

"I am Avatar Yangchen," she introduced herself to them, and Yue bowed her head in respect.

"Avatar Yangchen," went Aang. "The monks have always taught me that all life is considered sacred, even the tiniest Spider-Fly stuck in its own web."

"Yes," Yangchen agreed with him, "all life is sacred, precious and irreplaceable."

"I know. I'm even a vegetarian. I've always striven to resolve conflicts by being quick or clever, using violence only for necessary defense…and have refrained from taking a life."

This, of course, reminded Yue of the time in the Si Wong Desert when a pair of Buzzard Wasps had snatched up Momo and herself, prompting Aang to chase after them. By creating a twister, the Avatar had saved them, but, in anger, almost went and took out one of the Buzzard Wasps when they were getting away; it took Yue to keep him from doing so, stating that Air Nomads never kill, and that Aang himself told her to remind him of his spiritual beliefs that the monks had hammered into his mind. As a consequence, Aang had almost violated his beliefs by using violence when it was unnecessary.

"Avatar Aang," Yangchen responded, "I can tell that you are a gentle soul, and the monks have taught you well. But this isn't about you. This is about the world."

"But the monks have taught me that I needed to detach myself from the world so that my spirit could be free like the wind," Aang stated this truth of the Air Nomads' beliefs.

"Many great and wise Air Nomads have learned to detach themselves from the worldly concerns of others, and have achieved remarkable degrees of enlightenment," Yangchen expressed, "but the Avatar, and those that are reincarnated into their Air Nomad ancestry, can never achieve such degrees of enlightenment…because their sole duty is to the world."

Yangchen's spirit then took notice of Princess Yue's presence and it almost seemed like the previous Air Nomad Avatar had more to say about herself from the past.

"My elder twin, Eli, had felt that I had violated our Air Nomad beliefs in my time as the Avatar," she had confessed, which brought to Yue the revelation that this previous Avatar of the Air Nomads did have a sibling. "In my years following my mastery of the remaining three elements and the Avatar State, I did only what I view was necessary to ensure order and balance in the world, which, in turn, violated my people's oldest belief of non-violence. Eli viewed me as disgracing our heritage, that, because I was the Avatar, I wasn't meant to cause great harm to others. _"I'm not speaking to the current Avatar of the Air Nomads, Yangchen. I'm speaking to my sister, who has turned her back on our beliefs. Even if it's your eternal duty to ensure balance in the world, there's no need to bring the end to the lives of your enemies. The other Avatars from the other nations, they don't count because they have their own beliefs that they follow. Every time I hear about what you've done, who you've defeated… You terrify me, Yangchen. And every time people see me, they would mistake me for you, their harbinger of order and peace. They're willing to overlook every wrong thing you do in your duty, and the reason they do so is because they believe there's a logical reason for you do what you do. But…to perform murder when it shouldn't be committed… That, little sister, disgraces more than just our beliefs. It disgraces who we are and tarnishes our souls. You take someone's life, you have to live with that knowledge for the rest of your life." _She had once told me…and for the longest time, I wished I had taken her words to heart. She believed that any Avatar born into the Air Nomads should follow the beliefs like any other monk or nun and refrain from the ultimate acts of violence…but I didn't. I went and ensured that no wars or great conflicts would occur in my life, and in the process… I drove my sister to leave the Air Nomads because she couldn't live with my decisions. The day I saw her for the final time…was the day she told me that she hoped the next Air Nomad Avatar wouldn't echo my actions, only then…would she forgive me for the emotional pain I had caused her. In the following years when she ventured to the Northern Water Tribe, she lived a life that I felt I couldn't live because of my role as the Avatar. Her husband was a Waterbender that was a descendant of the people that left the North Pole following a civil unrest, and they had at least three children, one of which was a daughter that could Airbend. I never told her this, but I had admired her happiness…and I envied her life of being able to make the choices I didn't see any alternative to. Here is my offering of wisdom to you, Aang: Selfless duty often requires that you sacrifice your own, spiritual needs…and to do whatever is required, whatever it takes, to protect the world."

And with that, Avatar Yangchen's spirit vanished, leaving the current Avatar and the Tribal Princess with a sense of sadness and painful realization.

"That was, probably, the most saddest story I ever heard," went Yue, wondering what it was like for Yangchen's sister, Eli, to hate your own sibling for going against the spiritual beliefs that you grew up knowing, and to live with that hatred until your dying day, hoping that the next Air Nomad Avatar wouldn't echo the actions of your sister. _But…maybe it's right that when we were in the Si Wong Desert, I stopped Aang from striking the Buzzard Wasps. He could've regretted doing so._

Looking toward the Air Nomad boy, Yue saw his pain at realization of the awful truth that he didn't want to accept.

"Brr, brr," chirped Momo, who looked up at Aang.

"I guess I have no choice in this matter," he expressed. "I must kill the Fire Lord."

"No, Aang," Yue told him. "No, I can't accept that as the truth. We'll find a way to beat him without killing him. Murder might've helped solve conflicts with the previous Avatars, but time has changed people. People have changed over the generations. We can get through this dilemma."

But Aang didn't seem all that convinced by her faith.

"I hope we can, Yue," he told her.

-x-

For some ominous reason, Sokka didn't feel right about the way things were going to transpire with the day of the arrival of Sozin's Comet, even though things were bound to go the way of the balance between the Four Nations instead of total domination by the Fire Nation. The knowledge of knowing that the masters Bumi, Jeong Jeong, Pakku and Piandao were going to help Iroh, one of the Grand Lotuses of the Order of White Lotus would be leading an attack on Ba Sing Se to liberate it from the Fire Nation was not what worried the Water Tribe boy. It was a strong feeling that something…awful had happened to Yue while she and Aang were still missing. But all he could do now was hope that at the end of the war, when all was said, did and done, he would see her again, no matter what. He swore on the Moon and Ocean Spirits that he would, dead or alive.

"Any time you're ready to head to the base of the Fire Lord's airships, Sokka," said Suki, hoping to renew the warrior's hope, as she, Toph and him were now aboard the Eel Hound that Piandao gave them to get to the airship base quicker.

"Let's end this war," he responded, and the three raced off to the island that was the starting point for the Fire Lord's plan to raze the Earth Kingdom to the ground.

-x-

The rays of the sun, partially block by the branches of the trees, weren't what bothered Yue as she and Aang slept from pondering what the Avatar should do about the Fire Lord. There was something in the back of her mind that was trying to tell her something…but she didn't know what it was that something was saying. And the fact that it felt like her way of sleeping for the last few hours of the night revolved around her looking up at the dark sky that slowly changed to grayish-blue, signifying the new day had arrived. The day…of the comet's arrival, where the path of the Gaang's journey into the inferno would end.

_If only we knew where we were,_ she thought, wishing for a way off the island. _If we were somewhere in Earth Kingdom territory that led north to the Northern Water Tribe, then all we'd have to do travel at a fast pace to the western side where it heads to the Fire Nation…and find a solution on the way._

"Grrrraurgh!" Her eyes widened to the sound of something she'd heard before, and she got up off the ground. "Grrrrraurgh!"

"What was that?" Aang asked, waking from a bad night of sleep.

For the first time in the new day, a smile formed on the princess' face.

"The one person I can think of that stays close to me," she said in a riddle, as something from high in the trees slowly descended toward them.

A Sky Bison, small in stature and carrying a shaft-like object in its mouth landed in front of them, which brought a degree of hope to the two benders.

"Korra?" Aang gasped, wondering how such a bison calf could find them.

Korra, happy to see that her life companion was safe, tackled her to the ground and licked her face.

"Aah!" Yue screamed, laughing. "Korra!"

When that was done, the Tribal Princess and the Avatar climbed onto the bison's back; if they could see where they were from above the trees, then that would give them a clue as where to go. Korra took them up into the air, and to their surprise at the sight of mountains from a distance.

"Are those mountains getting bigger?" Aang asked Yue, who looked at the ocean water, making sense of everything.

"They're not getting bigger, Aang," she responded. "The island we were on, it's getting closer to someplace. But the question is: Why would a mysterious island be drifting toward there?"

Aang looked back down at the island…and thought he saw something! It looked almost like…a large, webbed claw!

"Yue, we gotta get back down!" He told her, and she didn't question it.

"Brr, brr," Momo chirped, flying around them as they lowered closer to the island, and then saw Aang jump into the water!

"Aang!" Yue gasped, seeing the boy's head burst from the water, spitting some of it out of his mouth. "What are you doing?"

"You're not gonna believe this, Yue," he yelled back, "but this isn't an island! It's…it's probably the biggest animal in the world!"

"The biggest animal in the world? But…creatures like the Serpent, the Unagi, Sky Bison and dragons are the biggest I've ever heard of or encountered."

Aang swam further up the island that he claimed was the largest animal in the world. As Yue and Korra flew after him, the princess saw what provided some credibility to the Avatar's words: The large, webbed claw. It shocked her to see such a sight, now believing that this island was indeed the largest animal ever. What she had deemed the very front of the island now, since she and Aang were now in front of it, Yue wondered just what type of animal could grow to be larger than a dragon, the Unagi, the Serpent and a Sky Bison put together, as there was no record of any other animal ever encountered that had a large, webbed claw.

Suddenly, something bubbled in the water and burst from it, revealing itself to be, to Yue's surprise, a large head of brownish-red that was covered in seaweed, natural markings and everything. It was a creature that Yue couldn't believe still existed because it hadn't been seen for thousands of years: A Lion Turtle, and this one was probably not only the biggest animal in existence…but maybe even the only animal worthy of being designated the oldest one alive.

"Grr," Korra growled, as Aang was now atop the Lion Turtle's massive right paw.

"Korra, take us down there," Yue requested, and the bison did as instructed, landing beside Aang and allowing the Tribal Princess to get a good look at the ancient beast. "Wow."

"You can say that again," went Aang. "You think it knows how to end the war peacefully?"

"We should try asking it," she told him, and stepped up to the edge of the paw. "Greetings, ancient Lion Turtle. We seek a solution to end a great conflict."

Aang stepped up beside her and added, "Everyone I know, everyone I'm trying to save, even my previous lives…are expecting me to end someone's life…but I don't wish to do so. I don't wish to end anyone's life, even to save the world."

_The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions of the world without being or getting lost,_ they heard an ancient, grand voice that felt full of wisdom and brought a sense of comfort to them, just as the Lion Turtle raised its left paw up from out of the water, bringing up two talons. _The true heart can touch and endure the poison that is hatred without being or getting harmed._

_Incredible,_ thought Yue, realizing that the ancient beast was speaking to them; she heard its voice within her mind.

_Since beginning-less time, darkness has thrived throughout the void, but always yields to the purity of the light,_ the Lion Turtle told them, just as the Avatar was touched on his head and chest by the creature…and then the Tribal Princess was touched, as well.

Yue felt a warming sensation that brought a feeling of calmness between herself and the world, like everything was okay now. That was the only way she could truly describe the feeling she got when the Lion Turtle touched her. Then, as the great light faded from her perception and restored the clarity of the environment, she noticed that she, Korra, Momo and Aang were set upon the shore of the western terrain of the Earth Kingdom by the great beast.

_Wait for him,_ _and he will come._ The beast told Aang, and then told Yue, _Go to her, and she will be stopped before the inevitable can come._

As the Lion Turtle left them alone, returning to the ocean, what Yue was told confused Aang.

"Go to who, Yue?" He asked her. "Who must you stop before the inevitable can happen?"

She looked at him and sighed, answering, "Princess Azula."

Aang worried for her now; the Tribal Princess, despite her development as a warrior and her rudimentary lessons in Air and Waterbending, there was still her chest injury that hadn't completely disappeared from her body. And…if Azula were to use lightning on her a second time, and there being no water from the Spirit Oasis to heal her (unless Katara still had some, as Sokka had used his sample to save Yue from certain death), the Tribal Princess would surely die for good. Waterbending-induced healing had its limitations with regular water…and Yue, if she got hurt, wouldn't be able to heal herself.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" He asked her, also worrying about Sokka if something terrible did happen to Yue.

"No," she answered him, "but I've been desiring to settle the score between her and myself ever since that day in Ba Sing Se."

As she climbed atop Korra, she gave the Avatar a praise of confidence.

"You'll do alright when you face Ozai, Aang," she told him. "You're the strongest bender alive and the only one that can restore balance. By the time this is all over, you'll know what to do. You'll know how to settle this war…without bloodshed."

"Thank you, Yue," he praised her back. "When you face Azula, be careful."

"I'll give her the winds of water. She won't know what hit her until she's down and restrained." She chuckled, and patted Korra's left side. "Yip-yip, Korra."

"Grr!" The bison calf grunted, taking off into the air, having rested enough to travel to wherever it was that her life companion needed her to get to in the western part of the world.

-x-

As day became night once more, Sokka became of the first of many people prepared to end the war to see the night turn into day in the most unusual way: Sozin's Comet, the second greatest source of power to a Firebender, the greatest comet that brought light to the darkness, had finally arrived, and it set the sky ablaze.

"Spirit Oasis," he gasped, seeing the darkness turn into a bight orange as the comet brought its own light to the world.

"It's almost weird to say this, but the comet actually makes the sky look beautiful right now," went Suki, expressing her opinion on Sozin's Comet's positive qualities.

"Yeah," added Toph, who couldn't see the sky on fire, "but it's too bad that the Fire Lord intends to use it to destroy the Earth Kingdom."

As they arrived to the island that the White Lotus organization confirmed that Fire Lord Ozai would be using to launch the airships that would raze the Earth Kingdom to the ground, the airships were already taking off.

"Oh, no," gasped Suki. "We're too late!"

"No," went Sokka, seeing the one still closest to the ground as it was beginning to take off. "We can catch that one! Toph!"

"Got it!" Toph responded, as the three ran up the hill that was in front of the ascending airship. "Hold on, this is going to be a bumpy ride."

She bended a large column beneath their feet and they shot up into the air, heading toward a ladder underneath the airship they were flying toward.

"Aaaaaaahh!" Sokka and Suki yelled, and Sokka grabbed the ladder, enabling the girls to climb up and get to safety.

"Okay," went Suki, catching her breath, "we're on the ship. What next?"

"We take out the soldiers that steer the ship…and then we take out the rest of them before they can raze the Earth Kingdom to the ground." Sokka explained, praying to the spirits that Yue and Aang were okay, wherever they might be right now.

-x-

Fire Lord Ozai, or rather, Phoenix King Ozai, whose bending was augmented to a level that was perhaps second only to the Avatar, unleashed an enormous, widespread stream of fire that started to raze the edges of the Wulong Forest, charring the stones and reducing the trees to ash! Birds and other small animals could only scream in great fear as they tried to get away from what they understood as a rising wave of flames that would end you the instant they made contact with you. The would-be master of the planet was enjoying himself that he didn't realize the one threat to his planet-wide empire was below him on the gigantic rock columns, telling his lemur to head to safety.

"Time for you to go, Momo," Aang told him, and the lemur flew off, allowing the Avatar to fight against the approaching airship that was the Fire Lord's. "Okay… Let's get this over with."

He started by Earthbending a few pieces of the column he was on and sending like discs toward the ship, knocking it sideways in the air and stopping Ozai's initial attack on the forest. Then, taking a well-balanced breath to fill up his lungs, he spun and extended his right arm up at the ship, unleashing an enhanced blast of fire toward it! It damaged the ship even further, forcing the Fire Lord to abandon ship and flying via his Firebending and land atop a neighboring column, facing the latest human incarnation of the planet his family sought to conquer.

"Ah-ha-ha-ha! After two generations of Fire Lords failed to find you, and after my poor excuse for a son fails to deal with you by bringing you to me in chains, the universe delivers you to me as an act of providence," Ozai chuckled.

"I'm only going to ask you of this once, Ozai," responded Aang. "Don't do this. You have the power to stop what you're doing, right here and now."

"You're right. I do have the power," Ozai confessed, but not in the way the Avatar was hoping. "I have all the power in the WORLD RIGHT NOW!"

Fire was unleashed from his hands and mouth as he expressed his belief at being stronger than the Avatar at that moment, something Aang was hesitant to believe, since he, as the Avatar, has been around since the beginning of the Four Nations, making him the most powerful being in existence.

"_You'll do alright when you face Ozai, Aang," _he recalled Yue's words before she left to face Azula, and all he really could do was hope that he would do alright while facing the madman.

"You're about to be put in your place, Ozai," he then told the Fire Lord, taking a defensive stance.

-x-

The battle to liberate Ba Sing Se was progressing remarkably well in the White Lotus' favor! Soldiers of the Fire Nation that served Ozai were getting pummeled, despite their larger numbers and the power augmentation they received from the presence of Sozin's Comet, forcing them to retreat further and further into the center of the city, the Upper Ring.

King Bumi, who had, during the solar eclipse that deprived the Firebenders of their bending, retook his city, Omashu, all by himself, as it was the perfect time to strike back and turn the tides of the war for the Earth Kingdom, and now he was Earthbending large walls of stone to shield himself from flame attacks and sending Tundra Tanks into piles by columns of stone, disabling them completely. And every time he achieved a victory against the enemy, he took a bite out of rock candy as a reward for himself.

Piandao, showing no fear against the Firebenders and regular soldiers he went up against, slashed at them with his sword, cutting their spears in half or leaving them with non-fatal cuts that left them incapacitated long enough for some Waterbenders serving in the White Lotus group to freeze them in place to keep them in check.

Jeong Jeong, one of the Firebenders of the group, dealt defensive blows against the soldiers and their tanks, being the prime example of fighting fire with fire, raising defensive walls of flames and using them to send the Tundra Tanks backwards into piles. With Sozin's Comet augmenting his bending, he was able to utilize the flames he created to propel himself through the air, levitating in a sense with his flames, allowing him to perform other feats of Firebending without needing to land on the ground. And, as if to insult the forms that fire took when bending them, his walls and redirecting of flame attacks resembled the forms of Firebending's opposite in life: Waterbending, like rising waves that would crash onto the ground after breaking.

The Waterbending Master, Pakku, before the city's liberation started, bended a large amount of water from Lake Laogai to use to enter the battle and wash away his opponents, then having to draw water from whatever sources there were within bending reach in the city. He left Firebenders with their arms and legs frozen so that they couldn't bend until after the comet passed and their bending was no longer augmented to incredible levels that proved difficult to confront. Although, the full moon provided an exceptional boost in his own power. It was like the Moon Spirit saw how important this liberation was to the Order of the White Lotus and granted the Waterbenders greater strength.

Iroh, on the other hand, as the other masters were dealing with the soldiers, he had just defeated several soldiers and stood in front of the Royal Palace. With an intake of breath and two raised fingers from his right hand, he set fire to the Fire Nation flag draped over the Earth Kingdom symbol, incinerating it to ashes so that the people could see and feel the truth: The Earth Kingdom had been set free from the Fire Nation for good.

-x-

"Grrr!" Korra growled, fearful of the sight of blue and red flames brushing against each other as Yue and she made their descent to the Royal Palace of the Fire Nation Capital, where it seemed like a war was taking place near the Coronation Temple and Plaza where new Fire Lords were crowned and the funerals of previous Fire Lords were held.

"Wow," Yue sighed at the impressive-yet-fierce display of flames. "Those are the biggest fires I've ever seen in my life. Okay, Korra… Try to set us down in front of the palace."

"Grrr," Korra obeyed and flew them away from the fires and in front of the palace, where there were several people on the ground.

They landed in front of a pair of elderly women and some people Yue recognized as Earthbending members of the Dai Li.

"What are you doing out in the open where the flames can hurt you?" She asked them.

"Princess Azula," one of the elderly women explained. "She hasn't been herself in the last few days. She started banishing people from the palace, left and right, for even the most minor offenses."

"She felt that none of us could be trusted when she became the new Fire Lord," the other elderly woman added. "We might betray her…or even kill her. Only the Fire Sages are left within the palace; the Dai Li, the Imperial Firebenders, the palace servants…even her own advisers…were cast out."

Yue looked up the palace gates that separated it from the rest of the city, willing to accept that Azula wasn't in her right mind, anymore, whatever her right mind truly was back in the past, and that she needed to be dealt with soon before the battle going on would harm the people not involved.

"Who is she battling in there?" She asked them.

"Her brother…for the position of Fire Lord," answered one of the Imperial Firebenders to her.

"Zuko? I suggest the Dai Li do something beneficial for a change now. Take the people underground where it's safe."

The Dai Li, disbelieved that a young woman they weren't affiliated with was giving them an order, decided not to question her and do as instructed, bending a hole in the ground and took the banished people underground.

"And what of you?" The elderly women asked Yue.

"Me and Azula have history to settle," she told them, and then Airbended a spout beneath her and soared up to top of the gates, leaving the women in awe at the mere belief that a woman in Water Tribe clothing was actually an Airbender, who demonstrated further Airbending by using a staff and making wings open up on its sides before taking off to the site of the Agni Kai between brother and sister.

-x-

Zuko knew that he said that his sister was slipping, but he hadn't expected her bending to still be at a dangerous level. It took him a good degree of control and calmness to match her, blow for blow. The power of the comet only helped to raise the stakes even higher. Her focus was weakened, but her drive to keep him from becoming the new Fire Lord was direct. It was a battle that was probably going to be to the death.

"Haaaurgh!" He heard her shout, shooting a much larger stream of blue fire at him.

"Ha!" He grunted, creating a smaller wall of red fire that blocked the attack and broke it in half, sending the blue flames at other parts of the temple and plaza that, by extension, burned other buildings that were close enough to be reached by the flames.

Azula was now panting; her loss of control was reflecting on her inability to maintain proper breath control. As direct as her hatred toward Zuko was demonstrated, her lack of self-control was only aiding in her fall from grace. Struggling to catch her breath, she felt that her brother was about to taunt her.

"What's the matter, Azula?" She heard him say to her. "No lightning today? What's wrong? Afraid that I'll redirect it toward you?"

"Oh? Lightning? I'LL SHOW YOU LIGHTNING!" Her voice roared, and she performed the arm motions required to guide the lightning, separating the positive and negative energies that would desire to redress the balance that had been disrupted.

As Zuko took a stance, prepared to absorb her comet-enhanced lightning attack and send it back at her, a part of him wondered if he could truly bring death to his own sister, despite her being the enemy. Could he live with knowing that her life ended by his hands? He knew she was crazy and needed to be brought down, but he never thought of actually having to kill her.

Of course, Azula didn't think the same way as her brother did; she was set on destroying any that stood in her way, and that included him! But once all the energy needed for her lightning attack was gathered and ready to be unleashed, she took notice of Katara…and made a decision to see how her brother would react to a Water Tribe peasant's death.

"Ah-ha-ha!" She cackled, guiding the attack in the direction of Katara, who's expression was now of fear; she didn't anticipate that the Crown Princess would direct an attack toward her!

"NO!" Zuko screamed, leaping in front of the lightning assault and absorbing it into himself.

However, because of the quickness of his leap, along with the dangers of not being in the required form to redirect the attack, the banished prince had unintentionally welcomed a crippling repercussion due to the comet-enhanced lightning strike. He felt like every inch of his body had been set ablaze, and the only way to remedy that pain was to expel the lightning. But try as he might, sending whatever much of the lightning that he could release into the sky, he felt like he still had some left within him. His first time redirecting lightning…and it wasn't at all how he had expected it to be. The way his uncle had pointed it out, it seemed simple enough, but with himself, it was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.

"Aaaurgh!" He groaned, lying on the ground, sparking with bits of electrical energy still inside him.

"Zuko!" Katara yelled, running toward him to help him, but another lightning attack kept her at bay.

"Ah-ha-ha-ha!" Azula laughed in a maniacal fit, charging toward the Waterbending Master now. "You're next, you filthy peasant!"

The water in her two water skins wasn't enough to contend with the princess' comet-enhanced bending, even with the aid of the full moon. And the nearest large bodies of water were some distance away from her, meaning that if she wanted to deal with Azula, she would need more water to bend. But still, she had to try to get away from the crazed Firebender, and shot out five Water Whips from her water skins to distract Azula enough to reach one of the rectangular pools of water. But the princess' flames were right behind her, evaporating the water faster than Katara could freeze it. And when she ran out of water to bend, she fell to the ground.

"Urgh!" She grunted.

"I'd rather have the family physician look after dear, old Zuzu, if you don't mind," Azula told her, coming up toward her, a ball of fire in her right hand.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind came and Azula was blown off her feet and several feet into the air, landing on the building opposite of the one behind Katara!

"Aang?" Katara gasped, looking up at one of the temple structures, seeing not the Avatar, but the Tribal Princess, Yue, having Airbended with her staff. "Yue?"

Yue jumped off the building and used Airbending to slow her descent onto the ground, picking up one of Katara's discarded water skins.

"I got Azula," she told her. "Take care of Zuko."

"But…" Katara tried to use reason, as the Crown Princess was much too dangerous for her to take on.

"I know what I'm doing, Katara," she cut her off, Waterbending an available source from the pool behind her and filling the water skin up to its limit. "Trust me."

Katara decided not to argue with the water princess and got up, bended water into her two remaining water skins and rushed to tend to Zuko.

Azula came to and saw Yue, who, due to her mere presence, ignited her greatest of rages.

"I will burn you to ashes!" She shouted at her, Firebending herself off the roof and soaring across the ground. "Aaaurgh!"

Yue used her Airbending and utilized the Air Nomads' Air Spout technique to oppose Azula, only to channel air in front of her and blast it at the Crown Princess.

Azula countered and sent fire at the stream of wind, resulting in an explosion due to the increased amount of oxygen and super-heated energy generated by the two benders.

BOOM! It sent them slamming onto the roofs behind them.

"Aaurgh! Aaurgh!" Yue groaned; while her chest injury had been mended more than her back injury, she could still feel irritation due to the flesh healing slowly without the aid of Waterbending.

Azula, shaking off the effects of a headache, got up and Firebended again, heading toward Yue.

"Burn!" She shouted, landing on Yue's roof and sending a large stream of fire at her.

"Whoa!" Yue gasped and Airbended herself into the air, flipping over Azula and unsheathing her sword.

Landing on her feat, the Tribal Princess took her sword and shield, her Airbending staff discarded for the moment on the ground.

_Sokka, wherever you are, I hope you're fairing better than I am,_ she thought.

-x-

"Aaaaaahh!" Sokka screamed in pain, having caught Toph before she could fall to her death on the airship they hadn't damaged yet, but breaking his left leg as a consequence. "Hold on, Toph!"

"Aye-aye, Captain," Toph responded.

As the comet-enhanced Firebenders on the airship were approaching the pair to end their interference, Sokka was wondering where his plan to destroy the airship fleet went wrong. He, Suki and Toph had taken over the ship they had gotten on, disposed of the crew by dumping them into the ocean, and rammed the tops of the other ships while Aang was dealing with Ozai. While the attack wasn't completely successful, they were making progress due to Toph's Metalbending abilities; he even praised her for developing the art. But then, they got separated from Suki during the jump from one of the airships to another and haven't seen her since, and now his leg was broken and he was having a hard time holding onto Toph with just one hand while reaching for his boomerang with the other.

"Urgh!" He grunted, getting his boomerang and knocking out one of the Firebenders, though they still remained aboard the ship due to a safety line, and then he reached for his sword and disabled another Firebender, who was also saved due to having a safety line.

As more Firebenders came, Sokka could watch as his sword was so unlike his boomerang, in that it couldn't return when thrown…and his boomerang wasn't coming back this time.

"Bye… Gentleman's Sword," he whined quietly; now he couldn't be a Gentleman of the Battlefield with Yue as his Lady of the Battlefield. "Toph… I don't think my boomerang's coming back this time. This might be the end for us."

Toph didn't want to believe this to be true; she had other things she wanted to do before her life ended, like seeing her parents and, potentially, reconciling with them. She had once heard that before you die, your life is supposed to flash before your eyes…and for a little while, she thought that it was true, even for those with eyes that couldn't enable their owners to see the world. Tears escaped hers as the thought of death grasped her heart.

SMASH! Something beside their airship smashed into it and Sokka had let go of her. Toph thought that she was finally going to die…until she fell on something hard that wasn't too far down.

"Ow! Ow, ow, ow!" She heard Sokka yell in pain as he was near her.

"What happened?" She asked him. "Did your boomerang come back?"

"No," he answered, seeing the airship that smashed into theirs and saved their lives. "Suki did."

Suki, having managed to find another airship to take control of, had slammed it into the other ship and saved Sokka and Toph from certain death.

"You guys need a lift?" She asked them.

-x-

Aang wasn't having a great time dealing with Ozai. The Fire Lord was relentless in his pursuit of getting rid of the Avatar, forcing the reincarnation of the planet to hide inside a ball of stone. Aang tried to meditate on contacting his Avatar Spirit, to access the Avatar State, but the effort in clearing his final chakra was difficult; letting go of his love for Katara was something he simply didn't want to forgo at all, even for all the power of the Avatar State to restore balance.

BLAST! His protective ball of rock was blown off the ground and had slammed into a pillar of stone, being burned further by Ozai.

"It ends here!" He told the Avatar, and unleashed an explosive blast of intense heat, shattering the ball and exposing the boy, who tried to protect himself with a wall of air, keeping the flames at bay.

"_By the time this is all over, you'll know what to do." _He heard Yue's voice repeat in his mind. _"You'll know what to do, Aang."_

Unbeknownst to the two combatants, the Air Nomad was in front of a jagged stone edge that was about the size of a small finger…and it stuck Aang in the back, missing his tattooed skin by an inch, but causing intense pain!

"AAAAAAHH!" He howled, feeling like somebody had stuck a blade up his back, and that his insides were set on fire.

Flashes, visions of Avatars from the past were presented in front of him, displaying impressive feats of bending that no other benders, not even an army of the most experienced masters, could top. There was Avatar Roku, in both his prime and old age, bending the elements and stopping a volcano that had desolated his island home. After him was Avatar Kyoshi, using the elements to separate her village from the peninsula where Chin had fallen to his death. Avatar Kuruk bending a large wave for purposes unknown, and Avatar Yangchen, creating a strong wind that defied all the Air Nomads put together.

Rocks fell on him as he fell to the ground, and Ozai had walked over to the pile, knowing that he was still very much alive.

"Come on out, little boy," he ordered and taunted Aang, preparing to deal in the final blow, leaning forward to face him. "You're about to be…"

A small hand reached out from the pile and grabbed him by his beard, pulling him down. The Fire Lord saw the face of the Avatar, with his eyes and arrow aglow on his head. As he had learned from the Fire Sages years before, this was a sign that the spirit of the planet possessed the power of lives past working through the current incarnation. The Avatar State.

"Aaaurgh!" He threw his right arm, ablaze, at his head, but the Avatar knocked his arm aside, sending the fire upward.

BLAST! A strong blast of wind blew Ozai back several feet until he slammed into another column of stone. The Airbender's strength had been magnified beyond what the Fire Lord had anticipated.

Aang, wrapped in the swirling intensity of his past lives and the fury of the pain he had felt when pushed against the stone, was in transition between wanting to get back at Ozai…and restoring balance to the world. He levitated high in the air, protected by his sphere of air, looking down at the Fire Lord with a fury that didn't even come close to his own anger when his Flying Bison was captured by Sandbenders or when his lemur was nearly taken by Buzzard Wasps. It was a fury of the planet itself, desiring vengeance for what was done to it that caused great pain.

"Rrrrrrraaaaurgh!" Aang roared, bending fire from his mouth and all four limbs, generating intense flames that surpassed those of Ozai's, who had some difficulty resisting the strong wind currents that were still being generated by the Avatar.

Then, as the flames condensed around the sphere of air as a ring of fire, several large pieces of stone lifted off the ground, floating around the Air Nomad, who merely tightened his fists, forcing the large pieces of stone to compress into smaller pieces that were now suspended around his body in the sphere, circling him from his left shoulder and right leg. Soon after, from the ocean behind them, rising to heights that were impossible for a regular Waterbender to reach, was drawn to the sphere and compressed into a ring that laid encircled his right shoulder and left leg, closest to his body. The combination of elements, in Ozai's perception, made the Avatar a fearsome sight to behold, as he had bending materials on demand.

-x-

BLAST! Yue used her sword in conjunction with her Airbending abilities and sent Azula, who tried to burn her face, flying toward the ceremonial platform where the Fire Sages watched the battle, and they ran for cover.

"Urgh!" Azula grunted, trying to catch her breath as she rose back up to her feet.

She was disappointed in herself for being made a fool of in front of people. Fire was the greatest element of the arts, and it was being surpassed by a peasant princess possessed the gifts of water and air, and she wasn't even a master of the arts that surrounded them. Was it possible that this girl was a prodigy, just like her, or was she just lucky?

"Azula," Yue told the Crown Princess, "I'm trying to be merciful toward you. Surrender immediately, or I will drown your future."

Azula got up, glared at the Tribal Princess, and shot blue fire at her again.

"Burn!" She yelled at Yue, who blocked the flames with her shield, which was now losing its durability against the intensity of the blue fire.

With several more direct blasts, the shield crumbled to dust off Yue's arm, leaving her with just a sword, a water skin and her staff. She bended the water out of her water skin and directed five Water Whips at Azula and ran toward one of the pools of water to replenish her supply. As she rushed, bending whatever amount she could into the pouch, the Crown Princess quickly recovered and sent flaming wheels and blasts toward her. It took Airbending-augmented evasive maneuvers to avoid getting singed to a crisp, and all Yue had to show for it was a half-full water skin.

Azula looked like she was ready to fall over due to lack of energy coursing through her, but the drive to watch the Water Tribe girl she had thought she'd killed with her lightning attack that had been reserved for the Avatar back in Ba Sing Se, fought against during the day of the solar eclipse when the Fire Nation was attacked, and again at the Boiling Rock where her favorite prisoner was set free by the princess and the Water Tribe boy along with her brother, also revealing that the girl was able to bend two elements and was aided by a little Flying Bison (all she could do was assume that the bison was the offspring of the larger bison she had seen belonging to the Avatar) was enough to drive her to persist, that she could relax once she was the new Fire Lord.

Yue, now desperate, used up all the water in the pouch and sent a wall of water at Azula so she could run toward a grate to grab a length of chain that was hanging there; it was a desperate move, and one that had a degree of pain. Within ten seconds, the Tribal Princess felt a burning, stinging sensation on her back, as if she had been struck by a fireball when she was expecting lightning, and fell onto the grate, feeling the agony of failure weigh her down.

"Yue!" She heard Katara scream.

With what little strength she had, she raised her head up and looked toward her, seeing that Zuko was barely conscious due to his half-mended injury…and saw that, just below the grate, a source of water was within bending reach.

"This time," Azula's voice was now all she heard, "I'll make sure you don't survive."

Hearing the sounds that came with the generating of lightning by the deranged Firebender, Yue put her faith in everything she had learned, in everything she believed in and desired…calling forth more strength from her bending blessing granted to her by her mixed heritage…and bended all the water from beneath the two princesses, letting her Airbending freeze it as Azula was about to unleash her lightning attack upon Yue's turned torso. Both benders were frozen in a large wad of ice, with Yue having rose a few feet off the ground due to the water rising up beneath her and lifting her body up and Azula's tangled hair fanned out to make her appear more deranged than ever. Try as she might, the Crown Princess couldn't move her body, all save her eyes, and no amount of Firebending could melt the ice that surrounded her; she had never experienced being frozen before to apply her bending to set herself free.

Katara hadn't taught Yue how to Waterbend like that before and was wondering if the Tribal Princess knew what she was doing beforehand, with Zuko conscious enough to see what had happened.

"Is she…" He tried to ask, but couldn't say the question without there being a negative answer in return from Katara.

"I don't know," she answered him, hoping that the girl wasn't gone.

Yue's appearance in the frozen water, being one of desperation and hope, with eyes that faced the Fire Nation's princess directly, gave little indication that she was still among the living…until her nose exhaled a warming air that expanded across her body and the ice that surrounded it. Leaving the rest of the ice alone, Yue fell to the grate and breathed in a new breath before getting up and grabbing the chain off one of the pillars that supported the roof structure over the grate. But before she decided to use the chain, she brought her hands onto the ice around Azula.

"Let this end here," she uttered, pressing her hands against the ice, and watching as it glowed brightly while her hair rose up in a swirling breeze.

Zuko regained complete consciousness at the sight of this Waterbending feat, wondering what Yue was doing to Azula.

Within the ice prison, Azula felt different due to the small layer of warm water around her; it wasn't a feeling of total relaxation like when she was getting her hair groomed or taking a bath, but more like a feeling of being relieved of heavy burdens. It was like everything that happened to her in the past few years since her mother disappeared, all the way up to the betrayal of Mai and Ty Lee, was being washed away by the Tribal Princess.

As the the glowing ice ceased, Yue carefully bended the ice back into water, enough so that she could apply the chain on Azula's arms and tie her to the grate; the Crown Princess didn't even try to resist being restrained by her.

"It's over," Yue expressed, rising back to her feet and dragging herself to Katara and Zuko. "How's he doing, Katara?"

"I ran out of water to heal him," Katara explained; she had left out her amulet containing water from the Spirit Oasis, as Zuko had once told her to reserve it for Aang, in case he needed it the way Yue did when she was hurt badly.

Yue then bended water from out the grate, impressing Katara with her advancing skills, and applied her now-glowing, water-covered hands onto Zuko's injury, her hair performing the rising feat it did when she healed somebody with her bending. She then removed her hands from him, revealing where the near-fatal had been, was now a star-shaped mark of half-mended skin; Zuko now needed to heal on his own before he was well once again.

"Thank you," he praised her.

"Don't mention it," she told him back.

Now able to stand on his own, with some assistance provided by the girls, Zuko went over to his sister and they found her sobbing quietly.

"What'd you do to her, Yue?" Katara asked.

"I tried using Waterbending-induced healing on her while she was frozen," she confessed. "I saw the way you used it to help Jet when he was brainwashed, so I figured it could help with clearing her mind. Was it wrong of me?"

"No," Zuko answered for Katara. "It was the right thing to do, Yue."

"Grrr!" They turned and saw Korra flying toward them, landing behind Yue. "Grr."

Yue let go of Zuko and hugged her bison's head.

"It's over, Korra," she told her. "Everything's gonna be all right now."

Korra then licked her face, earning a fit of laughter from the princess.

-x-

"Fire Lord Ozai," went Aang, the power of his past lives bringing out the great anger in his own voice as the Fire Lord was now trapped in stone shackles that kept him from Firebending with his arms and legs. "You and your forefathers have devastated the balance of this world. And now, you shall pay the ultimate price!"

Ozai, for the first time in his life, was terrified of the Avatar, who had all the power in the world to back up his words of him paying the ultimate price. All his plans, all of his goals, to bring victory to the Fire Nation, to succeed where his predecessors had failed…and to eliminate all resistance from the other nations…were all for naught. Even with his enhanced Firebending, he was no match for the might of a little boy that disappeared for a century and had the strength and knowledge of countless predecessors to call upon.

Aang gathered his elements that comprised his offensive/defensive sphere and created a rising twister that curved in the air above Wulong Forest and its pillars, aimed at the Fire Lord. As he brought the death-dealing fury of his attack down upon him, the Air Nomad boy recalled a voice that had stayed his hand from long ago when he nearly made a choice that would've left him with a guilty conscious.

"_No, Aang!"_ Yue had told him, stopping him from using his bending against a pair of fleeing Buzzard Wasps. _"You're an Air Nomad! You don't take life from anyone or anything! You told me yourself! You don't take life!"_

_I… I don't take life,_ he was able to regain his grip on his body from his spiritual collective of the past that acted through him. _I don't take life!_

He stopped his attack in midair and the fire ceased and the air became free of manipulation, leaving only tiny bits of rocks and minute ounces of water to fall harmlessly on Ozai as he hovered in his sphere of air down to the pillar, his tattoos ceasing in their constant glow.

"No," he told himself, refusing to go down that path to save the world, just as Ozai's stone restraints came loose, allowing him to rise to a kneeling position to catch his breath. "I'm not going to end it this way. Not like this."

"You… Even with all the power in the world," Ozai grunted, feeling opportunity grant him a second chance to take all that he desired, "you're still weak, just like your people were."

He made a move to Firebend, but Aang, having trained to utilize the Earthbending skill to sense physical reactions through the ground, became aware of the assault to come…and evaded his right fist, bending a large wall of rock to bind his limb and end his bending through said limb. Then, he bended another rock wall to bind his other arm and prevented him from Firebending through his mouth with Airbending in order to grasp his forehead and chest, almost paralyzing him this way.

_In the era before the Avatar existed,_ the Lion Turtle had revealed to him as he had touched Yue and himself, _we bent not the elements…but the very energy within ourselves._

Aang focused on the ancient art that predated the existence of the Four Nations…and his eyes flashed blueish-white, and made Ozai's flash reddish-orange, illuminating the dark red sky that was the night set ablaze by Sozin's Comet. It was as though the energies that gave rise to fire and air were now waged in a battle to decide which element was greater than the other in the form of light.

_To bend another's energy, your own spirit must be unbendable…or you will be corrupted and destroyed,_ the Lion Turtle's words of warning in the use of the ancient art echoed in the Avatar's mind, just as it seemed that Fire Lord Ozai's life energy was proving to be stronger than the young monk, now enveloping his arms and spreading up to the rest of his body.

Aang was losing the battle of wills between himself and Ozai, but words of encouragement from people of the past were what kept him in the fight, even when it seemed that he was withering in his goal to beat Ozai.

"_We can't concern ourselves with what was. We must act on what is," _Gyatso's advice echoed in his mind, pushing him to fight back.

"_You give people hope," _Katara's voice came second.

"_You're the best there is at what you do, Aang," _came Sokka's praise.

"_We believe in you, Aang,"_ Yue had told him, and the fading, blueish-white light that had been almost completely covered by the reddish-orange light burst out and enveloped everything, bringing a semblance of daylight to the red night sky. _"Give us a future we can be proud of."_

The light ceased and Aang let go of Ozai's head and chest, allowing the Fire Lord to fall back as the Avatar regained his strength from the ordeal.

Ozai, feeling like he had lifted buckets of rocks for days and ran for miles, rose up, tried to Firebend at the boy, only to see no flames appearing at all, and fell back.

"What…what did you do to me?" He asked, sounding weak.

"I've taken away your Firebending," he answered him. "You can no longer use it to hurt or threaten anyone ever again."

Walking away from him as he laid there, exhausted and incapable of getting up, the Avatar looked down upon the fires that were devastating the forests. Focusing on the power that was needed for one purpose only, his eyes and tattoos glowed brightly…but only for a moment. Empowered by augmented strength from his past lives, he raised the ocean waters upward, putting out the fires and saving the rest of the forest that would soon grow where life had been taken. With a calm mind, he released the power that was no longer needed and lowered the ocean waters back down, allowing the surviving Firebenders of the destroyed airships that were in the water a sigh of relief; to them, the Avatar had shown them mercy where he could've taken their lives.

"Brr, brr!" He heard Momo chirping, landing on his left shoulder.

-x-

Yue looked up at the sky as it returned to its original dark state with the stars out, signifying that the comet had now passed the planet, ending the period of time where Firebenders were granted increased power to aid them in winning the war…and was glad to know that it would come back to the planet for another one-hundred years.

"It's finally over," she sighed.

"Yeah," agreed Katara.

The Fire Sages, still holding the Fire Lord's headpiece to pass on to the next Fire Lord, approached the small group…and presented Zuko with the item, bowing to him.

"Crown Princess Azula cheated in the Agni Kai match," the High Sage explained, and it was true; in an Agni Kai duel, you're only supposed to strike at your opponents, not bystanders watching the match.

_Of course,_ Yue realized, _Azula lost as a result of trying to attack Katara, allowing Zuko to win before he even took the lightning attack to save her._

Zuko accepted the headpiece, but then gave it back to the High Sage, saying, "There's not enough people here to see much of a coronation of the new Fire Lord. People of all the nations."

Yue and Katara realized what he meant by that; Zuko wanted his ascension as the new Fire Lord that would decree the end of the war to be witnessed by people of the Water Tribes, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation AND Air Nomads. That would be something to be remembered for years to come.

Hours of rest and recuperation into the new day came around as people were either showing up to the Coronation Temple and Plaza from other parts of the archipelago or from other parts of the Four Nations. Some familiar faces were gathered in the large crowd as people of the Fire Nation were surprised to see Air Nomads that survived the genocidal assault that had been made on them a century ago. While at least fifty Air Nomads were present, there was still a degree of fear and tension between the people, so it would be a while before true balance and harmony between the people could be achieved for good.

Sokka, who had leg bandaged, found Katara, who had found their father talking to one of the Council of Five members.

"I heard what you two helped to achieve," he praised his children. "I must be the proudest father in the world. Your mother would be proud, too."

Sokka smiled as Katara touched her choker.

"Has anybody see the Tribal Princess?" They heard a young girl's voice, and Sokka turned to see members of his favorite Earth Kingdom warriors.

"Not yet," he told Suki, missing her face paint a lot in the months that followed fall of the Earth Kingdom. "She must still be getting ready for the ceremony with Aang and Zuko. Odd to say, I didn't expect to hear that she fought and defeated Azula on her own. So, how does it feel to be back in the uniform once again?"

Before Suki could even answer him, another familiar face, or rather, a not-so-familiar face, due to the paint on it, showed up beside her and expressed, "It feels wonderful!"

It was Ty Lee! She was dressed as a Kyoshi Warrior, so, naturally, Sokka reacted defensively in front of Suki against the other girl.

"Careful, Suki," he defended. "Ty Lee's pretending to be a Kyoshi Warrior again!"

"Actually, Sokka," went Suki, calming things down, "she's one of us now."

"Huh?!" He gasped. "Really?"

"Yeah," explained Ty Lee, who had revealed that before she'd been acquitted of crimes against the Fire Nation for turning against Azula, she'd been thrown into the same prison as the other Kyoshi Warriors, whom she actually made amends with in the time she was with them, "and after a few chi blocking lessons, they said that I could join their group (she then entrapped two of the warriors in a bear hug). We're going to be best friends forever!"

The two warriors smiled back at her, though it seemed to be with some hesitation; Ty Lee was still somebody they had to get used to due to her cheerful personality.

-x-

Zuko, not entirely recovered from his Agni Kai with Azula, whom was very quiet when she was transported to one of the other islands that housed a mental health facility to watch her closely and rehabilitate her back into society, was walking down the hall of the temple to attend his coronation as the new Fire Lord and declare the end of the war. He noticed Aang sitting with Yue on opposite sides of the covered door; it looked like the Avatar was teaching the Tribal Princess how to meditate.

Aang, wearing attire that traditional of the Air Nomads, with a necklace of prayer beads that some of the Air Nomads were known to wear. As his original attire had been too small for him to wear normally and his updated attire by Yue had been burned away by Ozai, the Air Nomads that came to attend the coronation had brought him new clothes.

Yue, on the other hand, was wearing her clothes from the Northern Water Tribe when she first met the Gaang before the siege that nearly brought the end to the Moon Spirit, even her hairstyle was returned to its old state, albeit the color was still mixed white and brown as a result of the near-death experience she had with Azula's lightning in Ba Sing Se. She worried that of the people of the Water Tribes attending the coronation, her father was going to be there, worrying about her, since he had to be aware that she had gotten hurt in her time with the group.

"It's hard to believe that a year ago, my purpose in life was to hurt you down," they heard Zuko say to Aang, who opened his eyes.

"And now we're friends," Aang responded kindly.

"Yeah," he agreed, "we are friends."

"I can't believe that a year ago, I was still trapped inside of an iceberg."

"Like how I couldn't believe that ever since I was born and had my life saved by the Moon Spirit, I would one day have to leave behind the people I love in order to save them?" Yue asked, as she and Aang rose to their feet. "But now things have changed. Everything's different."

"Real different. Not like how I knew them from before…but perhaps a bit better." Aang expressed.

"It'll get even more better," went Zuko, "because we'll all build and rebuild it together."

"Yeah," Aang agreed.

"Exactly," added Yue, and then they went through the tapestries that covered the path to the outside of the temple to the large gathering of people from all the Four Nations as a Fire Sage banged on the gong to signify the presence of the Fire Lord-to-be to the people. "Wow. There's so many out there."

And, true to her worries, she did see her father, Chief Arnook, among the people from the Northern Water Tribe. He looked up at her, seeing how she had changed in the time she left home, and chuckled as he waved a hand at her. This was praise, and she smiled.

As Zuko declared that the war, now known as the One-Hundred Year War, was officially over and that a new era of love and peace was to begin on the path to healing the war-torn world, and that with the Avatar's help, they could truly restore the balance that had been damaged in the years. All the people needed to believe that this was possible for it to happen.

"All hail Fire Lord Zuko!" The High Sage announced, placing the Fire Lord headpiece upon Zuko's head, crowning him the new Fire Lord, and the youngest one in known history to ascend to the throne while the previous Fire Lord was still alive.

The people cheered loudly. This was something to be remembered for years to come.

A/N: I'm sorry I took so long, my readers and reviewers. And again, I apologize for leaving you without what some of you really want to see. But I promise you that the next chapter will most definitely be the final one. And many things will follow their great course and others will follow a different course that not many will expect. Until then, peace out and be with you!


	21. The Princess and the Future

Creation began on 08-31-12

Creation ended on 01-01-13

Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Princess and the Future

A/N: Here it is, people. I hope that by the time this is over, you'll be proud of my vision. Sokka and Yue forever and ever!

A month into the new era of the aftermath of the One-Hundred Year War had shown some considerable change for the people. It would take time for the Harmony Restoration Movement to gather up all of the Fire Nation colonials and relocate them in parts of the Fire Nation, which had been discovered over time to be drastically underpopulated, as there were more people in the colonies than in the homelands. Peace treaties were needed to ensure that the Air Nomads, whom were reduced in the years of hiding to a near-extinct bunch, were kept protected from possible danger until their Air Nomad settlements were rebuilt. And while Chief Arnook of the Northern Water Tribe was shocked to find that Yue had been involved in her more-than-fair share of violence, nothing could have prepared him for the revelation that his daughter was able to bend water and air…or possessed a Flying Bison of her own that she named after her mother after discovering that there were some surviving Air Nomads.

And now, in a small room of sculpted snow and ice that retained heat, making it relatively warm, she was getting set for a tour of the rebuilding Southern Water Tribe with Sokka, since they were now in the South Pole and had seen it looking almost like the Northern Water Tribe city, only smaller and still being built in expansion by the Waterbenders. It seemed like things had been progressing very well in parts of the world now that the war had ended. Meeting the whole of Sokka's family had been, in a strange way, quite amazing, as his grandmother, Master Pakku's formerly estranged fiancee-turned-wife, Kanna, had indeed asked her many questions.

"Grr," growled Korra, standing outside the room as Yue examined her looks in the mirror.

"Okay, Korra," she told her bison, "I'm ready."

She got up and stepped out of the room, seeing the South Pole going through a great deal of being manipulated by the Waterbenders from the North Pole. To her surprise, there were some little kids from formally-scattered villages lifting up small globules of water from one of the canals being made.

"Yue," she heard Sokka as he showed up to meet her. "Wow… You look wonderful."

Sokka had dressed up similar to when they had first met in her home; of course, due to their presence in the South Pole, where winter weather was all the time, even with the change of the seasons, dressing up warmly was a necessity.

"Shall we?" He asked her, holding out his gloved left hand.

"Yes," she responded, extending her right hand, and they left to look around what Sokka had memorized of the tribe. "You know, my father thinks you should've called the Harmony Restoration Movement something else."

"Oh? But I thought it sounded so meaningful."

"Yeah, it does. He just wishes it could sound like it does. I told him it does sound like it has meaning because it symbolizes the movement back to harmony in the world."

They stopped in front of a canal that had been recently finished and it led to one of the mountains that the original Southern Water Tribe city had been founded near. It was also, supposedly, where the South Pole's original Avatar Temple had resided before the Fire Nation attacked in the earlier years of the war.

"It's so quiet here," she told Sokka, as they walked up the mountain pathway. "And we're almost so high up, we can touch the sky."

"Yeah," he agreed with her; of course, they'd been higher in the sky when on Appa or Korra.

Stopping to look down at the mending city below them by the water, Sokka had pulled something out of his coat. It was a small, blue pouch that contained something he'd been thinking about for some time now, but was wondering if it was the right time to act on the feeling he had.

"Grrrr!" Yue looked up and saw Korra hovering over the young couple.

"Somehow," she told Sokka, "I don't think we'll get much alone time with her being so close to me."

Korra landed on the side of the mountain and looked at the two, giving what almost passed for a smile that bordered on creepiness.

"Ah-ha-ha!" Yue chuckled, but then slipped. "Whoa, whoa!"

Sokka caught her arm, just as it seemed she was about to fall, but then Yue Airbended and regained her footing on the path.

"I think it'll be a while before I get used to that…completely," Sokka expressed.

"I know. The more I use either art, the more I forget that it's not a dream." Yue then patted Korra's head. "Hey, Sokka?"

"Yeah?"

"It seems like I've been dreaming all this time. Ever since the day I met you, back home. Even now (she turned to face him), it still feels like I'm in a dream."

He smiled at her; ever since the One-Hundred Year War was declared officially over, it was hard to believe that everything they went through, every hardship they faced…was almost like a fantasy that seemed so long ago. It was only less than a year, the end of autumn and the beginning of winter, when Avatar Aang had been released from the iceberg, and the two had been together since the ending of the winter season and the start of spring. But it wasn't until the start of the summer that they found out many things that were kept from the world in general…or were simply forgotten over time. Yue had even told Sokka that, while she and Aang were on a mysterious island that was actually an ancient-aged Lion Turtle, Avatar Yangchen's elder twin, Eli, couldn't forgive her sister for going against the Air Nomad disciplines unless the next Air Nomad Avatar could do the one thing she had ignored most of her life, and that was to never take the life of an enemy, even if they did deserve death. Yes, it did seem like everything was a dream in some way…and some people were just now waking up from it.

Sokka then placed the small pouch back into his pocket; it was something that could wait a while longer, as Yue wasn't going anywhere just yet.

-x-

"…How could we have overlooked this possibility?" Earth King Kuei questioned to the Avatar and his friends, a year after the Harmony Restoration Movement started.

"We had never expected this to be possible," Katara explained to him.

Even Fire Lord Zuko couldn't believe this! While many of the colonies had been removed from the Earth Kingdom lands back to the Fire Nation, there was still one colony locale, a small city in the western part of the Earth Kingdom called Yu Dao, that gave the Movement the greatest degree of trouble, mainly due to it being the very first colony established before the war had started. The primary cause of concern of there being another war was due to the Earth Kingdom people that lived harmoniously with the Fire Nation colonists there. Zuko had explained to the others that he'd been to the city after a near-assassination attempt on his life by the daughter of the city's current mayor, who was an Earthbender. There were families of both Fire and Earthbenders living in the city and they didn't wish to be separated from their loved ones…or their home that they worked so hard to build.

"So, just what are we supposed to do about this without the risk of war?" Aang asked them.

Yue looked at the world map that showed the Earth Kingdom and the locations that had been cleared of the other Fire Nation colonies…and Yu Dao's position as one of the only seven colonies left. It looked like, even after the previous war had started with the near-genocide assault of the Air Nomads, much the encroachment had taken place only in the west, right from the places that had been destroyed or abandoned in early to middle parts of the war in the upper-northern areas down to the lower-southern ones. Her eyes lowered in their gaze at one particular part of the map where her right hand had rested, as if she were seeing something about it that the others hadn't.

Sokka took notice of his girlfriend's odd behavior and uttered, "Are you okay, Yue?"

"Huh?" She snapped out of her gaze on the map. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine."

He looked at the part of the map where her hand rested, wondering about it.

"Say, Suki, didn't we get near this part of the Earth Kingdom when we went to stop the airships from burning it down last year?" He asked the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, who looked at the site where Yue's was.

"Yeah, we were close by," Suki told him. "Why?"

"Just trying to remember what it looked like from up high," he expressed, not sure why, but he wanted to believe he was onto something that Yue probably saw.

-x-

The one thing Yue was starting to hate about this new predicament with the remaining Fire Nation colonies was the strain it put on her days when she had to separate from the rest of the Gaang and return home to the Northern Water Tribe. While being home helped to ease some of the feelings she had when she had been away from the North Pole, particularly the homesickness, she felt that she had a responsibility to help find a solution to the problem.

"Yue," her father made his presence known behind her as she was looking out at the city below her.

"Yes, Father?" She asked.

"There is someone here to see you," he informed her, which made her heart fill with woe as to who it could be.

It was a lady, probably in her seventies or eighties, yet she seemed fit enough to be capable of running a mile if she wanted to. There was something about her that made Yue feel like she had met her from somewhere before.

"Hello," she greeted the woman, performing a curtsey.

"Hello, Yue," she responded with a smile. "I haven't seen you since you were seven."

"I'm sorry," Yue apologized. "Have we met before?"

"Yes, we have," the woman told her.

"Yue," Arnook expressed, "this is Kari. This is your grandmother."

As a memory from the past made it up to the Tribal Princess' conscious, the last time she remembered seeing this woman…was when she was seven years old, during the passing of her mother from a sickness that the healers couldn't save her from. Of the people present to mourn the wife of the current Tribal Chief that day, it seemed that this woman had also been devastated greatly by her mother's departure from the world of the living. It was then that Yue realized something she hadn't thought of in years since her mother's passing: She had relatives from both her parents' respective backgrounds, the maternal and paternal; her father's parents had passed away years ago when he was in his early thirties, meaning that Kari was her mother's mother, making her Yue's maternal grandmother. And maybe there was something she could help her understand.

-x-

There truly was something about the Mo Ce Sea that earned it its alternative name, the Lonely Sea, that Sokka found almost heartbreaking when he saw it from high in the sky. It was the ocean itself that separated the Fire Nation from the western regions of the Earth Kingdom, but there was something about that drew the boy from the South Pole to look at it more thoroughly. All he really knew was that he saw Yue's hand on the Earth Kingdom map and he was convinced that Yue had seen something that nobody else did, even if it was only for an instant.

_What did you see, Yue?_ He wondered, as Appa flew lower toward the regions of the Earth Kingdom, allowing him and the others present, Aang, Katara, Zuko and Suki, to look closer at the lands.

-x-

"…Your leave of absence from the tribe sparked quite a change in things, Yue," said Kari to her granddaughter, as they went on a ride down the canals of the city.

"Yes. Father had told me when he had sent me a scroll when I was in the Earth Kingdom," the princess responded, having recently learned a few things from the elder woman. "Women here are beginning to learn other types of Waterbending, among other certain restrictions being undone."

As their boat made a left turn, the elder woman had to look up at the young Sky Bison that belonged to her granddaughter, which followed them from the air.

"She'll get used to you after a while," Yue told her.

"I never expected that the Air Nomads were still alive," Kari expressed, "and when everyone heard of the Avatar's return and arrival… I never believed that the war would end, that it would go on and on."

"I met people in the Earth Kingdom that also didn't expect the war to end, but they were more concerned with finding safe places that weren't devastated by the Fire Nation. There were those in Ba Sing Se, the capital city of the Earth Kingdom, that would delude themselves all the time into thinking the war wasn't happening until the coup that had overthrown the Earth King temporarily. And as for the Air Nomads… Everyone thought that they were all dead, excluding Avatar Aang, since they were in hiding and were able to remain hidden until the day we went to the Western Air Temple. I hear that construction of a new Northern Air Temple is to take place once the situation with the colonies has been resolved."

Kari, ever since she was a little girl, had never once believed that she, like her father, his mother…and even her mother…were descended from an Air Nomad that settled down in the North Pole over five-hundred years ago, during the time of Avatar Yangchen's days, the very same Avatar that was reported to have died at the age of ninety-two. To her, people were known to have exaggerated a lot of the time, and that many people of the current Water Tribe could've been related to the deceased Air Nomad that was Yangchen's elder twin. What really had her disbelieving this belief was the fact that, in all her early childhood years, she didn't possess the gift of Waterbending or Airbending, further discrediting the possibility that her heritage was mixed. But now her granddaughter, the Tribal Princess, had reignited the possibility that this was actually fact. And if the princess could perform both bending disciplines, then maybe it was because it was meant to be.

"So…who's the lucky man?" She asked Yue.

"Hmm?" Yue was confused by her question.

"Isn't that a betrothal necklace around your neck?" Kari pointed to her choker.

Yue placed a hand on the carved fish and explained, "Oh, no. This was a gift from my boyfriend. Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe."

"The elder brother of the Waterbending Master, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe?"

"That's him."

"The story and rumors of how he helped to stop that fleet of airships from burning down the Earth Kingdom has brought him a degree of popularity from the villages outside the city here."

"Really?"

"Yes. You must be very proud of him."

"Oh," she sighed, caressing the stone fish a little. "I am. I'm very proud of him."

-x-

"…It's the same with three of the other colonies," went Katara to Aang and the others, having discovered the degree of harmony between the Earth Kingdom villagers and Fire Nation colonists that had families of both nations. "I even met a woman from the Fire Nation who has a son that's an Earthbender with a Firebending sister."

"Sokka, are you sure what we're looking for is around the western parts of the Earth Kingdom?" Toph, who had taken time away from her school where she taught at least three students in the art of Metalbending, asked him.

"Yeah," he answered, even though he wasn't sure as to what it was they were looking for in the west, only that he was for sure that Yue was onto it before he was. "I wish Yue was here right now. She'd tell us if she knew."

As the group traveled to the next colony, the blind Earthbender wondered how her parents, whom she hadn't seen in three months after reconciling with them after the end of the war, were going worry about her safety this time due to the unrest caused by the last few colonies not wanting to be undone by the Movement's goal to return the lands back to the Earth Kingdom. While it had been easy to let go of the hate she felt for them trying to limit her freedom and control her for most of her life, the fact that they still worried over, even after hearing of her involvement in ending the war with her Earthbending prowess and her development of Metalbending, was still an issue…just because she couldn't see the way others could.

"When does Yue come back to the Earth Kingdom?" Toph decided to ask.

"The day after tomorrow," Aang answered. _I never guessed that being royalty would hinder or even limit one's time._

-x-

"…Grrr," Korra growled, as Yue finished feeding her hay; the first time the princess' father made an attempt to feed the bison fish, Korra not only tried to resist, but, to Yue's surprise and disgust, she had a hard time going to the bathroom.

The princess looked out her window at the full moon, feeling the enrichment of lunar spiritual energy that made a Waterbender much stronger at night, and then at the water in the canals crisscrossing the city. Tomorrow, she would go back to the Earth Kingdom and resume her assistance in trying to find a solution to the unrest caused by the remaining colonies. The time she spent with her grandmother was filled with learning many things from her mother's side of the family that weren't considered possible due to the generational gap going back several centuries. One of the current things that Yue couldn't get off her mind was what Aang did to stop Ozai from taking over the Earth Kingdom, and that was removing his bending.

_The Lion Turtle touched us both,_ she thought, laying down on her bed now, _and Aang later removed Ozai's bending. Could I do something just like that? Take one's bending away? Why, I'd rather bestow bending to those without it._

-x-

Iroh knew the task to restore order and balance in the aftermath of the war wouldn't be easy for his nephew and the others, but was always willing to provide advice…and tea whenever necessary. The sight of people that couldn't see a solution to their problems, even when it was right there for them to see, was probably the most troubling fact of life that he saw most of the time.

"More jasmine tea, Sokka?" He offered to the Water Tribe boy.

"Thank you," Sokka praised him, holding up his empty cup.

"I don't think I've ever seen the _Jasmine Dragon_ this down since the last time we were here," came Yue's voice, signaling her arrival back in the Earth Kingdom, much to Sokka's delight.

"The unrest with the colonies has only gotten worse than before," expressed Aang, as he and Katara were going over the map of the Earth Nation for the umpteenth time, not seeing anything they've haven't already seen before.

Since Appa was too large to enter the tea house, Korra, who was still tiny, could enter a little and sat down next to Yue, who took a seat next to Aang and Katara, looking down at the map.

"Hmm?" Yue gasped, looking once against at the western part of the map.

"Believe it or not, Yue, Sokka thinks you have the solution to our problem," said Zuko to her, pouring her a cup of tea.

"Maybe," she suggested on the possibility. "Before I left home this morning, I had to ask my father a question about the Earth Kingdom that's an obvious one."

"Which was?" Toph asked, curious.

"That the nation, due to its massive size and expanse of land, had a lot of space that wasn't in use by anybody. And I keep looking at the western parts here…and the last time I looked at it, I thought I saw something that seemed possible, but I couldn't be sure."

"What did you see, Yue?" Sokka asked, wanting to know from her, needing her to speak her mind.

"When I looked at the map…for a moment, I thought I could see…a patch of the Earth Kingdom from way up high…with the ocean water forming a shape near the land in the form of a crescent-shaped moon. There were also two islands…and I imagined one of them had a statue standing on it."

Sokka then took out another map with a more-detailed look of the Earth Kingdom's western areas and set it on the table.

"Water forming a crescent-shaped moon… a bay area, with two islands nearby," he uttered, pointing to the location. "But why here?"

"Well, all the primary colonies were built in the west…and if the Earth Kingdom has a lot of land that's not in use by anybody… Then, instead of removing the colonies and separating the families, maybe… No, you'd think it were crazy."

"No, no, finish your idea, Yue," Zuko told her.

"We gather all the younger colonies and relocate them right here where the older ones are nearby," she explained her idea, her vision. "And expand upon it, give it a different direction to follow. Water, Earth, Fire and Air…all in the same place…of their own, free will."

"Like a new nation?" Aang questioned. "A fifth one, separate from the Four Nations?"

"Yeah," she said. "It's crazy, isn't it? I mean, there's a reason why the Four Nations are as they are."

"I don't think it's crazy," said Iroh to them. "If people of Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation descent are able to coexist in the colonies, then why can't people of all the nations coexist someplace that could be neutral for them?"

"That's likely possible, except the Air Nomads try to be as detached from the rest of the world as possible and acquire enlightenment. And it's still difficult with them trying to decide which of the other three Air Temples they shall reside in while the plans to construct a new northern one is still in progress. They're still not entirely used to others after the near-genocidal assault that was made on them a century ago."

"That…we'll have to work on," went Zuko, "but I like this idea of Yue's. It could actually work out. Let's take it up with the Earth King."

"Question," went Toph. "Who's to lead the potential new nation?"

"Oops," Yue gasped; as much as she liked the idea, the idea of leadership slipped her mind completely. _The Water Tribes are led by their Northern, Southern and Foggy Swamp Tribal Chiefs, the Earth Kingdom, as a whole, is ruled by the Earth King, with smaller towns and cities governed by mayors and kings with little power over their territory, and they have to answer to the Earth King…and the Fire Nation is ruled by the Fire Lord…with the exception of a tribal chiefdom that Aang and Zuko say used to exist for the ancient Sun Warriors that lived before the modern-day Fire Nation._

"What about you, Aang?" Zuko suggested to the Avatar.

"No, it can't be me," Aang explained; as the Avatar, he was neutral to any form of government, acting in the interests of order and peace among the nations. "Oh, wait. Before the near-genocidal assault, the Air Nomads had a council for each temple they resided in. The Council of Elders. They served as the spiritual and political authority of the Air Nomads, making the decisions in the interests of the people."

"So, a council for the idea? A representative from each of the Four Nations?" Yue suspected Aang's theory and asked.

"Yeah. They could lead the people."

"The more we talk about it, the more I start to like it," said Katara. "I would just like to do one thing if we get people from the Water Tribes to like the possibility."

"And that would be?" Yue asked her.

"Outlaw Bloodbending," she answered with a firm tone, and that was something Yue could agree with.

"No Bloodbending. Period." The princess replied.

"Me, too," added Aang.

"Same here," added Zuko, never wanting to go through that horrid experience again, as being Bloodbent by the rogue Waterbender, Hama, hurt like a fall from a mountain.

-x-

"…I swear, sometimes, we don't spend as much time with each other as we used to during the war and the days that came after it, Sokka," said Yue to her boyfriend, as they walked around on the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se. "It's like we're losing touch with each other."

The Water Tribe boy sighed as he agreed with her; the setback in the Harmony Restoration Movement, the trouble with the remaining Fire Nation colonies, even the subtle homesickness that Yue had to deal with by going home every few days to remedy and make sure that her father didn't worry about her safety…was putting a strain on their relationship. But it hadn't caused too much of a strain that they would do the harmful, which was to break up. The Tribal Princess truly loved the boy, peasant or not, and she knew that he loved her, a princess or not. Sokka then leaned on one of the parapets that made up the wall overlooking the land outside the city, seeing the mountainous terrain that made up part of the Serpent's Pass, trying to decide if now was the right time to ask Yue what he held back on asking her last year. At first, back during the war when he arrived with his sister and Aang to the North Pole, he found Yue physically attractive, and as he got to know her later on, his attraction toward her expanded to unforeseen heights. He admired her personality, her creativity, which rivaled his own, her determination and willfulness, and her understanding of the spiritual aspects of the Water Tribes, which helped him to see that there was no magic involved in bending.

Yue looked up at the sky and saw half of the moon out in broad daylight. She chuckled at the idea of the Moon Spirit being a bit persistent in wanting to be seen sometimes; the day was for the sun, and the night was for the moon.

"Sokka," she then uttered out, "we should spend more time together when all of this has been resolved for good."

"Yeah," he agreed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small pouch again. "Say, Yue…when this is all over… When everything is resolved with the balance of the nations being restored…do you… Well, do you ever…"

She looked at him, wondering what it was he was trying to say to her, to ask her once this was over.

"Yes, Sokka?" She urged him to speak his mind.

With some new encouragement, he tried to finish what he wanted to ask her.

"I…"

"Grrrrr!" His question remained unasked, as the Flying Bison, Appa, made his presence known.

"Sokka! Yue!" They heard Katara yell at them from above. "The Earth King agreed with the idea!"

"Really?!" Yue gasped. "That's great!"

"Yeah," added Sokka, quickly putting the pouch back into his pocket. "Great."

But Yue had her gaze upon Sokka once more, wanting to know what it was he was trying to ask her…and swore that she would find out, even if it deprived her of her bending.

-x-

Sokka was quite a talented artist when he came up with the symbol of the new nation, just as Aang and Zuko came up with the name: The United Republic of Nations. Yue had to admit that she fancied the insignia that was being used: It was similar to the Earth Kingdom symbol, but the shape was altered so that it was sideways, came with a circle in the middle that seemed to be inspired by either the Water Tribes' symbol or the Air Nomads' symbol and also came with a leg on the left and the right side on the bottom. To her, it almost reminded her of a tree, except with two trunks instead of one.

The Fire Nation colonists were hesitant at first to go along with the plan with being relocated to the chosen spot where construction of the capital for the fifth nation was to be constructed, but Zuko, as the new Fire Lord, assured the people that nobody was going to be separated from each other, whether or not they were of Fire Nation descent or Earth Kingdom descent, and that some people from the Water Tribes were going to be living there, as well.

The Air Nomads, however… Aang had a responsibility to make sure they were protected and that their past history and knowledge was restored to them…and give the Air Nation back its future.

-x-

"…I don't think I've ever seen you so down in the ice for a long time, Yue," Chief Arnook spoke out to his daughter's current mood of boredom as he noticed her lack of activity after her return home a month after the news spread about the new nation being created, something that, while it meant cooperating peacefully with people of the other nations on a long-term goal and such, didn't seem to ease the Tribal Princess' relationship with the Southern Water Tribe boy.

Yue, looking out her bedroom window at the city of snow and ice below the palace, turned to face her father and gave a slight chuckle; she was trying to hide the minor ache in her heart that she got every time Sokka and she were separated.

"There's nothing wrong, Father," she responded happily, though she knew her father better than most others did, as he could tell when a person was lying to him simply by their tone of voice, body movements or by the way they gesture with their hands.

Chief Arnook sat down beside his daughter's window and explained, "It took a while, but we were finally able to reestablish contact with our sister tribe in the South Pole…and we're preparing for the New Moon Celebration that's to occur within two months from now."

"The New Moon Celebration?" Yue asked, having never been to one on account of the One-Hundred Year War crippling contact between the Water Tribes, only hearing about them in old stories.

"It occurs every few years, happening on the night before the new moon. Family and friends from the two tribes gather to enjoy the festivities of the annual festival."

Yue recalled the understanding of a new moon very well; it was the first day of each new month that, in her mother's words, 'cloaked the Moon Spirit's lunar essence, the very moon itself, in the darkness so that no one, not even it's counterpart, the Ocean Spirit, could find it until the very next day'. In a way, it was a harmless situation, the very opposite of what the Firebender, Zhao, had attempted when he led the siege to slay the Northern Water Tribe for good. She had even gone to the Spirit Oasis on the night of a new moon…only to find the Ocean Spirit, La, by itself in the pond. Tui's presence was still felt in the pond, but it couldn't be seen by mortal eyes until the next day.

The revelation of being informed of the celebration that was to take place involving the two tribes meant to the princess that Sokka, who was from the South Pole, would have to be there, as well.

-x-

_The New Moon Celebration,_ thought Sokka, as he'd been informed by his sister that very same day that the Northern Water Tribe was preparing for the annual festival that would take place in two months from now. _As much as I want to be with her, why do I feel such hesitation from making me do something I don't want either of us to regret?_

As he continued to help dig holes and trenches for the first few new buildings that would help the fifth nation's presence be known for years to come, Aang, Toph, Haru and a few other Earthbenders were doing a faster job than he and the non-benders were doing, as they had made made holes going five feet deep into the ground and trenches that span at least a few miles.

"Hey, Aang," went Toph, bending up large piles of dirt over her head as she looked away from the Avatar and toward the Water Tribe boy, "what's up with Sokka?"

"He's just worried about the New Moon Celebration that's going to happen at the North Pole in a few weeks," Aang told her, bending a much larger pile of dirt up into the air and away from the trench they were working on.

"What do you know about it? What can you tell me?" Toph wanted to know.

"It's just a festival that occurs every few years between the Northern and Southern Water Tribes. Friends and family separated by distance come together to enjoy the time lost between them."

"Seems more like he's worried about seeing Yue again," the blind Earthbender expressed her opinion, which had the Avatar suspecting that she was close to home on that possibility.

"Maybe…or maybe he just misses her right now," he suggested.

"If he misses her so much, why doesn't he just marry her?"

That question, while unheard by the boy in question, seemed to affect Sokka, for he fell into the hole he was digging and let out a yell of pain.

"Ouch," he whined. _Why me?_

"Are you alright, Sokka?" He heard Aang ask him as he got back up.

"I'm fine," he told him, brushing the dirt off his clothes…and noticing the small pouch he kept with him at all times. "Oh."

He quickly snatched it up and put it back into his pockets.

"What was that he picked up?" They heard Toph ask.

"Hmm?" Aang responded, confused.

"He picked up something and put it in his pockets," she explained, pointing to Sokka.

"It's nothing," Sokka told them, wanting to drop the subject before it went too far.

"I can tell you're lying," Toph said in a singsong tone, playing off her ability to detect lies with her bending abilities.

"Seriously, it's nothing."

After the day of digging ended, Sokka sat by himself over by the water, looking at his small pouch after checking the contents inside. He was happy to see that the contents were unharmed, but it seemed to only add greater weight to his consciousness on what he wanted to ask Yue…but always held back on doing so. There was relief in knowing that she was alive and would, despite having been harmed twice by Azula last year, once fatal and once non-fatal, most definitely live to see old age (not only as a result of Aang preventing the murder of the Moon Spirit, but also due to the water from the Spirit Oasis having been used to save her life a second time she was placed in danger), but what he now perceived as a problem that needed to be resolved was the unwritten future between the two of them. Three, if you counted Suki.

While the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors hadn't been seen much since her small stay at the Fire Nation Royal Palace to provide Zuko added security when the unrest with the colonies started, Sokka couldn't imagine a future without her presence in his life, either. And while it seemed that she and Yue got along well, he knew that deep down, his relationships with the two were challenging right now. Even if things didn't go the way Sokka was hoping they would later on, he hoped that there would be no hard feelings between any of them.

"You want to talk about it, Sokka?" He turned around and saw Katara standing behind him.

"There's nothing to talk about," he tried to keep up the pretense that there was nothing wrong.

"You remember the day we all found out that Yue's engagement to this Hahn from the North Pole was renounced by him?" She asked him. "The both of you, yourself and Yue, seemed relieved to know that she wouldn't be getting married any time soon. But when you heard that some of the laws in the Northern Water Tribe were being abolished, including the engagement law…you seemed happy to know that. I'm not blind to what's really troubling you right this moment, Sokka."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really. That's a betrothal necklace you have in there, isn't it?"

Sokka lowered his head and sighed in defeat.

"Yes," he answered her. "I was meaning to ask Yue back when we were in the South Pole…but I decided to wait until it was the right time to really ask her."

Katara sat down beside him and provided some comfort to her brother.

"You must think I'm pretty foul right now. Two young women that I care about, but I'm thinking about one of them that I… I really want for there to be an easy solution."

"Just…just follow your heart, Sokka," she encouraged him.

Sokka wanted to do just that, to follow his heart and not his gut; whenever he thought of Yue or even Suki, he rarely ate much of the time, even after a hard day of work. Even when Yue got hurt when they left Ba Sing Se after the coup had taken place and Azula had shot her full of lightning, he barely ate, too concerned about her safety and waiting for her to wake up to eat. He was grateful to the Moon Spirit that Yue lived after that traumatic disaster. He was very, eternally, grateful.

-x-

"…When you walk away, you don't hear me say… Lately, you're all I need," Yue sung, flying on Korra's back as the bison soared through the air above the mountainous environment of the northern region of the Earth Kingdom where some early construction of the new Northern Air Temple was taking place…where she had also heard that Jet and the former Freedom Fighters were there as security for the Earthbenders shifting through the ground to ensure that the mountains they would be using as the foundations for the new temple would be stable. "…Please…oh, baby…don't go… Simple and clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight."

"Grr!" Korra growled, informing Yue that they had reached their destination.

"Princess Yue," went Smellerbee, "to what do we owe the honor of your visit out here?"

"When I heard that the Air Nomads had found the spot to build a new Northern Air Temple, I had to see for myself if it was true." The Tribal Princess expressed, looking around the mountains and seeing how beautiful they were. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Oh, we're just in charge of security," answered Jet, pointing to a few of the Earthbenders that took notice of the princess and waved at her.

Yue had also noticed the Earthbender known as The Boulder assisting in the creating of the foundations for the new Air Temple.

"Where's Sokka?" Smellerbee asked. "I thought he'd be with you."

"He's still in the western parts of the Earth Kingdom, aiding in the construction of the United Republic of Nations' potential capital," she explained, though she wished that Sokka had come along with her, if anything to provide her with company alongside Korra.

From a great distance, she could see the silhouette of the original Northern Air Temple that served as the home of the refugees of the Mechanist and his son, Teo, along with the sight of tiny shadows moving around in the air; the people gliding around in the warm air around the temple. Someday in the future, she hoped to see the Air Nomads, once Aang had taught them the ways of flying on their gliders, flying in the air as they once did in the past; since Aang had access to the total sum of memories of previous Air Nomad Avatars, the knowledge of making gliders and knowledge of skills Aang had yet to demonstrate to others were now his to pass onto others in the future to rebuild his nation.

"Say, the new Northern Air Temple," she then uttered out, "do you guys thinks it'll be like the original temple or made like the Eastern Air Temple?"

"I heard a while back that at least ten families of Air Nomads have relocated to the Eastern Air Temple," said Longshot, who, recently, was speaking a bit more now that the war was over and order was being restored, piece by piece. "And that the Southern Air Temple has been cleared of debris."

Yue remembered what the home of Avatar Aang had looked like before plans to restore it had gone into effect; the princess had seen the aftermath of the siege on her tribal city after the Fire Nation had attacked, but the old, aftermath sight of the temple during the war's earlier assaults were frightening. However, there was some ray of hope when they had returned to the temple to resettle: The snow had melted away, revealing spots where weeds had once resided…but had been replaced with wildflowers, and the spot where Aang had last seen his…his former guardian, Gyatso, when he had returned home a century later to find that much of the previous devastation had nearly cost an entire nation, a large tree had sprouted, bearing the Air Nation symbol, which appeared to had been part of the tree itself instead of being carved into it. It was like, as a result of the Avatar's return, departure, and recent return, life was beginning to return to the Southern Air Temple. There were even a bunch of lemurs that, while considered an addition to the flora and fauna of the Air Nomads' culture, didn't resemble Momo, but had a few of his traits, such as being able to fly around and were gluttons for fruit.

_Maybe the Avatar possesses spiritual powers that enables life to be restored, though slowly, to certain places around the world,_ she thought, like how there was warmth in the Spirit Oasis due to Tui and La's presence back home.

-x-

As the war had ended, the Fire Nation's water-bound ships were only used for transportation of people and resources. The transportation of resources from the homelands in particular, as they achieved a recent overhaul in removing the war-themed pieces of the ships in order to remove the idea of war returning after one-hundred years of war. One of the resources being transported were samples of Fire Nation flora and fauna to the location of the United Republic of Nations. Another resource was the processed metals that were salvaged from the drill that would serve in the early stages of construction of the bridges.

"It was just an idea," went Zuko, overseeing the transportation of the resources personally, "but it's starting to become a reality."

Though, one of the things he really needed to deal with later when he returned to the archipelago was continue to find other innovative ways to use the metal salvaged from the vehicles and weaponry his nation created or forced the Mechanist to construct during the war. But one of the vehicles he saw some good, beneficial potential in was the airship design that had been modified by the former war ministers. All that was required was a bit of redesigning of the exterior and making it less fearsome. If anything, it could be used as a more efficient mode of transportation.

_And hopefully, now that the time for rebuilding has started, the original Firebenders can make themselves known in the future._

-x-

Sokka got worried. Big time. A lot of time went by and it was now the night before the New Moon Celebration in the Northern Water Tribe. He was to meet up with Yue, but he felt tense. He wanted to stop putting off what he wanted to ask her after he had spoken with Suki a week ago to this night, but he got cold feet that he was trying to fight back against.

_I've only been here in the Northern Water Tribe for two days since I came back, and, already, I'm hesitating in everything I do, except thinking and eating,_ he thought, waiting by the rendezvous point suggested by Yue, which was the Spirit Oasis.

He looked down at the Moon and Ocean Spirits as they continued to circle one another in their eternal dance. He truly meant to go through with what he wanted to ask Yue.

"Grrr!" He looked up and saw Korra flying down.

Yue, who was on her back, got off and touched the warm grass and greeted Sokka.

"Are you alright, Sokka?" She asked, seeing that he looked like he had recently gotten away from a fight of some sort.

"Oh, I'm fine, Yue," he told her, wishing he were more honest with himself when he answered. "Wow. You…you look so different than when I last saw you."

That, of course, wasn't entirely true; Yue hadn't changed since the last time she saw him. With the exception of her hair still being a combination between her original, brownish coloration and the snow-white coloration to show that life had poured into her when she was a baby, she was relatively unchanged by the short time gap.

"Sokka," she started, but then noticed that Korra was still present, but then decided to just go with the flow and ask him what she was intending to ask him. "Sokka, you remember that day we were on the Outer Wall in Ba Sing Se?"

"Yes, I remember that day," he answered.

"You were going to ask me something, but then the others arrived to tell us that the approval for the new nation was given. I want to know…what it is was you were going to say to me."

Now Sokka knew there was no way out of this predicament. The worst thing to happen to him so far after the end of the war was simply finding himself halfway back into the rhythm of the fortune Aunt Wu had given him about living a life of unhappiness and pain, with most of it being self-inflicted. But this was different. He was being asked by his love interest what he had really wanted to ask her, and he was finding it hard to respond.

"Well, what I was going to ask you was, uh… I…" He tried to get it out of his mouth.

"Grr!" Korra growled at him.

"I believe she's encouraging to say it," Yue informed him.

Then, taking a new breath of air, he said, "What I was going to ask you that day on the Outer Wall was that, since we care about each other, love each other, understand each other very well, and…because Hahn renounced his engagement to you on account of his injury and epiphany of his life…"

"Sokka," she stopped him, "are you trying to propose to me?"

The Southern Water Tribe boy then sighed and answered her, "Yes, Yue. I am trying to propose to you. Out of love, trust and respect. Yue (he then pulled out a betrothal necklace from his coat and got on his left knee), will you marry me?"

Before Yue could respond to his proposal, Korra went over to him…and then licked his face, knocking him to the ground.

"Eh-heh-heh!" The princess laughed at him before helping him up. "Yes, Sokka. I'll marry you."

Hearing that made Sokka the happiest he'd ever been, and he then hugged her.

"Grrr!" Korra growled kindly, and then tackled them both to the ground.

"Korra!" They groaned, in an awkward position now; Sokka was atop Yue and unintentionally had her pinned with her arms at her sides.

-x-

He never realized that fishing for his tribe could seem so troublesome. Yet, the fact that he experienced how cold the water had been when he fell in during the siege had not only caused him to suffer hypothermia for several days, but it nearly cost him an arm and leg, due to the Fire Nation armor he was wearing at the time he tried to stop Admiral Zhao was very weak in protecting his body from icicles and nigh-subfreezing temperatures. It was due to his…his failure in protecting his tribe…and his recklessness, among his other traits, that he had to renounce his engagement to the Tribal Princess; the epiphany he had, which was due to being jumped by that Southern Water Tribe boy, helped a lot to open his eyes to his own flaws. Hahn needed to change many of his traits…just as he had developed a fear of the ice-cold waters of his home once he had recovered from his hypothermia.

One of the things that had bothered him a little during his recovery and rehabilitation was that the boy from the South Pole had become something of a celebrity among the talk of the northern people; for a few hours in a week, Hahn had heard how Sokka had taken part in a failed invasion of the Fire Nation and actually fought, side-by-side with Princess Yue, who had learned to wield a sword and shield against the former enemy, then, with the aid of friends and allies from the Earth Kingdom, brought down a Fire Nation air fleet that nearly reduced the Earth Nation to a large mass of ashes. Now, he heard of how he was helping in the construction of a new location for the Fire Nation colonies that didn't want to return to the homelands. Hahn couldn't understand completely why this was so, but he had to assume that anybody like the boy from the South Pole was making a great name for themselves that commanded a degree of respect…and part of his rise to aiding in the end of the war started with finding the Avatar.

"Steady as she goes, Hahn," said one of his comrades, reminding him that they were returning to the tribe with their large bounty of fish, sea prunes, seals, seaweed, squids and crabs, enough to feed ten families for at least three months.

His left hand's fingers twitched from the cold air, and he kept his distance from the water on the ship; he wasn't going into arctic waters any time soon, but the New Moon Celebration was something he was looking forward to. There would be many torches and lights scattered about the city so bright, it made the night look like day.

-x-

Yue couldn't remember the last time she had kissed Sokka in excess, but this was the first time she had done so in the Spirit Oasis, right in front of the Moon and Ocean Spirits, who continued to circle each other in their eternal dance of balance for the world. They must've been kissing for at least an hour; the Tribal Princess believed this was the case because her bison had fallen asleep near one of the two bridges…and she and Sokka were on the grass…with her atop him. In addition, during their kissing, Sokka had placed the betrothal necklace around her neck.

"I think this is the longest time I've ever kissed you," she told him.

"Likewise," he responded, feeling like he needed to catch his breath after kissing for so long, but he didn't feel exhausted just yet.

SPLASH! GASP! They heard a noise from the pond, just before they locked lips again, turning toward said pond…and seeing…a young woman dragging herself out the water, coughing and panting.

"Oh!" Yue gasped, and Sokka and she rushed over to help her. "Are you alright?"

Helping the woman onto her feet, they noticed that she was dressed in what appeared to be a Northern Water Tribe wedding attire, one that hasn't been in use since the years of…Avatar Kuruk. As she was able to stand a little on her own, the woman looked at them and their surroundings.

"Am…am…" She tried to speak out, but passed out due to exhaustion.

"Come on, Sokka," said Yue, and they carried her over the bridge and toward the entrance to the domain of Tui and La.

Two guards saw the princess and the southern boy exiting the oasis and found them carrying a woman, and rushed to their aid.

"What happened?" The elder of the two guards asked Yue, picking up the woman.

"She came out of the Spirit Oasis and passed out," she explained.

The unconscious woman was brought over to the nearest healing hut and Yugoda was tasked with making sure she recovered. In the meantime, Yue and Sokka wondered how the woman had gotten into the oasis to begin with; it was impossible to enter the Moon and Ocean Spirits' domain by means of underwater tunnels and canals, the guards that helped them carry her to the hut were also Waterbending Masters under Pakku, and, due to her attire, the ice-cold waters surrounding the North Pole were capable of great harm to human flesh that wasn't protected by thick, warm clothing.

_Unless,_ thought Yue, coming to a conclusion that couldn't have been impossible to accept, _she was in the Spirit World for a time. But from the looks of her attire__…__she would have to be… Is such a person capable of such a feat?_

As they waited outside the Yugoda's hut, Chief Arnook arrived after receiving word of this discovery from the younger of the two guards of the Spirit Oasis. Prior to his arrival, he had found out that nobody from the tribe, both the capital city or the smaller villages around the tundra, had ventured into the oasis, neither was anyone reported missing, meaning that the woman found was the only person they could get the truth from once she recovered.

"Yue," he greeted.

"Father," she she responded.

He wasn't surprised to see her wearing a different betrothal choker around her neck; ever since abolishing the marriage custom, the Tribal Chief of the North Pole had expected his daughter be in a relationship with the boy from the South Pole, even being accepting of the boy after discovering the cause of his daughter's hair change from white to brown and white, but never once able to comprehend how his daughter could survive a Firebending-based lightning assault that had been meant for the Avatar, even with the water from the Spirit Oasis.

"Any news on the woman?" He asked them.

"Not yet, sir," answered Sokka to him.

"Father, do you think it's possible she came from the Spirit World?" Yue suggested. "Her clothing does seem, somewhat, outdated."

"It's possible," he expressed.

Suddenly, Yugoda came out of her hut and bowed her head to Arnook.

"She'll be fine once she rested for a few hours," she revealed to them. "At first, I thought she had suffered an injury to her head, but after I tried healing her, I found I was wrong. She said her name is Ummi…and she was trapped in the Spirit World for over four-hundred years."

"Ummi?" Yue repeated, wondering where she had heard that name before.

"I remember finding that name in a book in Wan Shi Tong's library," went Sokka, recalling the information he acquired during his time in the desert library. "There was a woman named Ummi who was engaged to an Avatar born in the North Pole over four-hundred years ago. She disappeared upon arriving at the Spirit Oasis on the day of her wedding. According to the people present when it happened, something came out of the water and pulled her in. The Avatar tried to save her…but couldn't find her in the oasis after that day."

"But…the last Avatar born into the Water Tribes over four-hundred years ago was…Avatar Kuruk," Chief Arnook expressed, remembering the history of each Avatar born into the Water Tribes.

"This would mean…that this woman was engaged to Avatar Kuruk," went Yue, "but she was taken by the spirit known as Koh, the Face Stealer in order to punish him for not being attentive to his duties as the Avatar, which, as a result of the Avatar before him, he was allowed to step down from as the people of his generation were able to solve their own problems."

"I've heard stories about the Face Stealer," said Arnook, "but in each version of the same story, every time he takes someone's face, he keeps them with him. How is it that this woman, Avatar Kuruk's fiance, could get away from him if he took her four-hundred years ago?"

"Maybe we'll find out when she wakes up," Sokka suggested, himself curious as to how someone like this woman was able to survive in the Spirit World for over four-hundred years, whereas he was in the Spirit for a little over a day…and immediately had to use the bathroom when he was released by Hei Bai after Aang calmed the angry spirit down over the ruination of his forest home in the Earth Kingdom. "What better way to answer questions of curiosity than to hear from those that know the truth to them?"

-x-

Aang should've felt honored to be invited by Katara to the New Moon Celebration at the North Pole, but he got the feeling that he shouldn't have left the Air Nomads alone to attend a special event that happened once a year for the Water Tribes. Even though he wanted to spend time with Katara, he still had a responsibility to ensure the future of the Air Nation…and he wasn't even half-way there yet; all he had managed so far, with the knowledge of the previous Air Nomad Avatars, was teaching them the rights of equality and how to properly Airbend to create miniature twisters and enhance their speed and agility. It would still be a while before the elder Air Nomads developed the necessary skills required to construct gliders; for the time being, Aang had entrusted the teachings of glider-constructing to the Mechanist and Teo, who hadn't strayed far from the understandings of how the original gliders were made.

"Avatar Aang," a voice spoke out to him, but whilst Katara was with the others in the North Pole where he was currently heading to on Appa, he was the only person capable of speech, hundreds of miles in the sky.

But he recognized the voice as someone he had spoken to just once; it was the previous Avatar of the Water Tribes, Kuruk. Why would he be speaking to him now?

"Avatar Aang," Kuruk spoke out again, manifesting in front of the Airbender in a cross-legged sitting position. "Something has happened in both the Spirit World and the Northern Water Tribe."

"What has happened, Avatar Kuruk?" He asked his predecessor from the Water Tribes, unsure if he should be worried or excited.

"In the Northern Water Tribe, something occurred that forced Koh, the Face Stealer to set free one of his victims, my fiance, Ummi of the Southern Water Tribe. He has refused to explain to me what caused this. I need you to find out for me."

Of course, finding out why Kuruk's fiance was set free by Koh meant speaking to her personally once he reached his destination at the North Pole.

"Yes, Kuruk," he agreed to the request, and Kuruk then disappeared from sight. _But why would Koh be forced to let go of one of his victims? That doesn't make much sense to me. He steals the face of any that show emotion…but he's never been one to let them go._

-x-

Opening her eyes to the rising sun, the woman known as Ummi felt rejuvenated after sleeping for what felt like the first time in a long time. She stood on her feet and stepped out of the hut, seeing several people setting up large torches for what appeared to be a festival that was to take place.

"Ah, you're awake," said an elderly woman's voice behind her, and Ummi faced Yugoda, the woman she saw from the day before. "How do you feel?"

"Better, thank you," she responded. "May I ask what is going on around here?"

"We're preparing for the New Moon Celebration tonight," Yugoda explained. "The first one in over one-hundred years."

"Why is that?"

"The Four Nations were at war for one-hundred years. It ended just last year, due to the help of the Avatar and his friends from the Four Nations."

"The Avatar? You mean, the little boy from the Air Nomads?"

"Yes, Avatar Aang," Yugoda then had to ask a curious question that arose from yesterday's events. "If it's alright for me to ask of you, Ms. Ummi, could you explain how you were able to leave the Spirit World after four-hundred years of being there?"

Before Ummi could even respond to that question, her stomach growled; the last meal she had was the afternoon of her wedding day over four-hundred years ago, and being in the part of the Spirit World that was Koh's domain hadn't helped her much in the centuries she was there. While those brought to the Spirit World didn't need to worry about the things mortals required in the living world, they were still the same as they were prior to entering the Spirit World.

"Perhaps a bit of breakfast before conversing further?" Yugoda suggested.

"Yes," Ummi agreed, and followed her back into the hut.

-x-

"…Grrr!" Yue heard Korra yawning as she woke up to the morning of the New Moon Celebration. "Grrr."

"Okay, Korra, I'm up," she sighed, rising from her bed. "You seem excited about the festival, as it will be your first ever."

"Grrr!" Korra responded.

The princess changed out of her pajamas and into her casual attire and took her bison to feast on the stored hay in the palace's animal pantry; while she found that she also could've fed Korra seaweed, the herbivorous, six-legged Airbending Master had a preference for hay and above-water vegetation. On the journey to the pantry, she caressed her betrothal choker several times to remind herself that what happened last night was real, that Sokka, who she was going to see at the festival tonight, proposed to her…and she accepted.

_Even now, it still feels like I'm in a dream,_ she thought, echoing what she had told Sokka once before.

Meanwhile, just overlooking the ocean in front of the primary wall that protected the city from the ice-cold waters and potential harbingers of war, Sokka was awaiting the arrival of Aang, seeing Appa closing in, coming in low like they had when they first arrived over a year back. That reminded Sokka of the time he, Aang and Katara were frustrated over how long it took them to arrive to the tribe, even Momo climbing atop Sokka when Aang, due to the crankiness, suggested that Sokka lead the way to the North Pole.

"Heh-heh-heh," he chuckled. "Those were good times."

When Appa slowed to a halt in front of Sokka, Momo flew over Aang's head and snatched a piece of the seal jerky that Sokka was eating. This was one of those times that the Water Tribe boy disliked a bit during the war, but let it slide when the war ended.

"You're finally here," Sokka greeted Aang, who Airbended off of Appa's head and landed in front of him. "Something really unusual happened."

"I know. I had received a contact from the last Avatar from the Water Tribes, Kuruk," Aang expressed about his last conversation with one of his past lives. "Someone he knew from the Southern Water Tribe was released from the Spirit World after being trapped there for centuries after his passing."

"Yeah, a woman named Ummi. She came out of the Spirit Oasis where Yue and I were meeting at."

Sokka then showed Aang to the hut where Ummi was recouping, where the sight of Kuruk's fiance back in his lifetime brought up some memories from the Water Tribe Avatar's past in the current Avatar's mind.

Ummi had been helping herself to her third bowl of tentacle soup (after consuming a second bowl of stewed sea prune soup) when the Avatar of the Air Nation appeared. She had seen pictures of the one that defeated the last Fire Lord involved in the One-Hundred Year War, Ozai, but she had yet to actually meet her fiance's Air Nomad successor. She set her bowl down, feeling replenished with new energy, and bowed her head to him.

"Hello," Aang greeted her, bowing back. "I heard that you were set free from the Spirit World just yesterday. Is this true?"

"Yes," Ummi answered him. "I have the Tribal Princess and the boy she was with to thank for my release. Koh didn't believe what happened last night would ever happen."

"And what was that? What happened at the Spirit Oasis that the Face Stealer didn't believe would happen?" Sokka asked her.

"True love being expressed…and reciprocated," Ummi explained. "When Koh captured me, he decreed that I would never know freedom unless another couple from the Water Tribes, or a couple from any of the Four Nations, actually, came to the Spirit Oasis and expressed mutual affections to the point where they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. If that ever happened, the Face Stealer would have to honor his decree. That was what happened last night at the Spirit Oasis…and Koh had to let me go."

Aang turned to face Sokka and started wondering if he and Princess Yue did something that the Avatar didn't know Sokka was capable of most of the time due to his mild immaturity.

"Grrr!" They heard a bison roar outside the hut, and the proceeding sound of footsteps on the snow-covered ice floor.

"Hello?" A young woman's voice came from outside.

Yugoda went over to the door and let the Tribal Princess inside, along with her Flying Bison. That's when Aang noticed that the princess had a betrothal necklace on, recognizing its crude details, seeing that a lot of effort went into carving it, realizing what Ummi meant by true love setting her free.

"Sokka, you sly lemur," he called his friend.

-x-

Once Yue had been brought up to date on how Ummi was set free by the Face Stealer, it was around the time for the New Moon Celebration to commence, with relatives from both the North and South Poles meeting and getting in touch after years of separation, along with being introduced to relatives from the Foggy Swamp Tribe, whom were adjusting to the cold environment of the North Pole while visiting their polar relations. People were scattered about the city, talking of past and future happenings, children, both boys and girls, were running around, showing off their bending abilities that they were developing, and friends from many years long gone were reuniting over meals.

"…So…your mother's name was Kya?" Yue asked Sokka over a warm meal, making sure she got the facts of Sokka and Katara's mother straight.

"Yeah," he answered, barely touching his soup; talking to his wife-to-be seemed better than eating at the moment, until his stomach made his hunger known. "She was…a very kind and caring woman…who put her family and tribe before herself."

"I wish I could've met her," the princess expressed minor disappointment in knowing that she couldn't meet the mother of her husband-to-be until her passing from the mortal coil. "I also wish I could introduce you to my mother."

"Korra?" Sokka responded, which caught Yue's bison's attention as she rested beside their table. "Eh-heh-heh."

"Seems like somebody's thinking they were called upon," Yue chuckled, and scratched Korra behind her right ear.

"How did your father react to meeting Korra for the first time?"

"He couldn't believe that I had a Flying Bison, just as it was an icebreaker for him to know that I name her after my mother, also a kind and caring woman that put her family and tribe before herself."

Korra then rubbed her head against Yue's back as the princess chuckled again. Once they were through eating, they went around the city, looking at the torches and lanterns that were modeled after the Moon and Ocean Spirits, seeing people dancing to music, or how members of the tribes instantly formed new bonds forged at first sight or from years of friendship or interest. As Yue and Sokka saw Aang and Katara dancing among the people, the Tribal Princess suddenly noticed some torches the spirit of Avatar Kuruk watching the people, or to be more accurate, watching his love who watched the people dancing. She then saw him accompanied by another spirit, dressed in Air Nomad clothing and looking toward her and Sokka; it was Avatar Yangchen, who smiled at the princess for some reason that was lost to her. Just as she was about to wonder why, another spirit appeared, resembling Yangchen, albeit a bit older and with a look of happiness that rivaled the Air Nomad woman's serious demeanor, and she was dressed in Water Tribe attire, complete with a betrothal necklace.

_Sister Eli?_ She thought, just as the elder twin of Yangchen uttered words that meant a great deal to the woman from the past.

"Thank you," her spirit praised Yue, who realized what she meant by that; the Tribal Princess had aided Aang in redeeming Yangchen in her sister's eyes by not crossing the line between sparing your enemy's life or ending them, putting the twins on grounds of forgiveness.

"Yue?" Sokka broke the gazing between them and the princess turned to face him, seeing that he was looking toward where she was looking. "Do you see them, too?"

"Yes, Sokka," she answered him.

When she turned to her right, she saw the one guy she hadn't seen in months: Hahn, who seemed to be watching her and Sokka. She thought she saw a look of envy on his face when he saw them together, but instead of making a scene, Hahn simply gave a nod of approval, which she returned with a smile and a wave of acceptance. It wasn't long before she pulled Sokka onto the dance floor with her, wanting enjoy the night before it ended, along with wishing to relive the dance they had experienced during their time in the Fire Nation.

"The torches and lanterns make it feel like it's daytime, Yue," Sokka expressed his opinion on the lighting around them.

"Because it's the night where the Moon Spirit's lunar essence is cloaked in the darkness of the night, we need to compensate for her absence," she explained to him.

"_In the heart of the darkness, a light __still burns__… __It takes you back there to a memory you've heard__… __In the heart of the darkness, she's still there__…__She's always holdin' on to what you share__…__Is anybody out there gonna take your hand? Hold you close and help you understand? There's a future to this life__…_"The music in the background reminded the young couple of the previous song that they heard while dancing, and it eased away many insecurities right then and there. "_The soul of the woman comes from a man__… __When he carries a burden, it never ends__… __In the heart of the darkness, when the night comes down__… __You're left with a promise love will be found__… __Is anybody out there gonna take your hand? Hold you close, try to help you understand? There's a future to this life__… __And it burns in the night__… __There's a future to this life__… But i__t's like a sign in the sky__… __There's a future..._"_  
_A short moment of musical silence swept around Yue and Sokka, who were looking deeply into each other's eyes, oblivious to the rest of the people that might've been watching them as they held hands. Even Hahn, who wasn't sure what it was that the princess saw in the boy from the South Pole, couldn't help but smile at the look of happiness on her face as she danced with him._  
_"_Is anybody out there gonna take your hand? Hold you close to help you understand? There's a future to this life__… __And it burns in the night__… __There's a future to this life__… __But it's like a sign in the sky__…__  
There's a future to this life, oh__…__ And it burns in the night__… __There's a future to this life__… __There's a future to this life__… __It burns for you and I__… There's a future…_" The song had faded into a musical silence, just as Sokka kissed Yue for the umpteenth time.

_There is a future to this life that is lived,_ thought Yue, feeling light on her feet.

The spirits of Kuruk, Yangchen and Eli soon departed, at peace with the world and themselves. Things seemed to be going smooth, like a rock that had been underwater in a river for many years and was eroded of its rough edges, or the wind blowing through a forest of cave without restriction, going wherever it desired.

-x-

Sokka had to wonder if Yue ever got frustrated with the waiting of the United Republic of Nations' capital to be within a workable point where expansion could commence without his aid. While they had agreed on waiting until it was finished so they could get married, it had been five months since the New Moon Celebration…and Sokka felt like he was hurting Yue with the long wait, though she herself had promised to wait. In those passing months, several things did happen that were both believable, unbelievable and unexpected: Zuko, with the aid of his rehabilitated sister, Azula, who developed a clearer state of mind after her defeat at the hands of Yue, found their mother, former Princess Ursa, who had been amnestied as a traitor of the Fire Nation after Zuko became the new Fire Lord, Avatar Aang, due to a slight mishap with several people admiring his Air Nomad culture so much that they wished to obtain a better understanding of the history and culture of the Air Nation, created the organization known as the Air Acolytes that would carry on the teachings of the Air Nomads through practice, the establishment of the United Republic Council to govern the people that started coming to the slowly-expanding fifth nation, the near-completion of the new Northern Air Temple requiring the relocation of the Avatar statures from the previous Northern Air Temple, the outlawing of Bloodbending and the restoration of places devastated by the One-hundred Year War, in addition to converting parts of Earth Kingdom territory into prosperous environments, like the Great Divide and the Si Wong Desert. With the rebuilding of towns and villages destroyed by the war, several of the former refugees that immigrated to Ba Sing Se were relocating back to their former homes with Earthbenders of the former Dai Li organization as security, using their skills that gave them their infamous status to protect the people, as their former duty of protecting Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage was no longer in force.

"…I heard that Toph has been requested by many families to teach their Earthbending children the art of Metalbending, Sokka," said Yue to him, as they flew on Korra toward Kyoshi Island.

"Yeah," he responded. "After her success with her first students, her career as a teacher has become the talk of many towns. Even her parents are impressed by her achievement."

Korra, now almost two years old, had gotten a little bigger in the past three months, and was now sporting a saddle that was normally used on Buffalo Yaks or domesticated Polar Bear Dogs (as Korra was nowhere near Appa's height and weight to support a saddle like his yet). She performed an aerial zig-zag to get a few laughs out of her owner and the boy she was with.

"Ah-ha-ha!" Yue and Sokka laughed.

They soon reached the island and noticed people cleaning the statue of Avatar Kyoshi yet again. Landing by the beach and walking toward the town, they spotted some familiar faces from the last time they were there; Yue had to snicker a little whenever she saw the man that seemed to have an obsessive tendency to foam whenever the Avatar (or friends of the Avatar) arrived. From the looks of certain things, the Water Tribe boy from the South Pole could've suspected that some of the people were getting set to leave the island.

"You three took long enough," they were halted by the Fire Nation girl, Ty Lee, who had been on the island for over a year now.

"Sorry," Yue apologized. "Korra had to stop three times. She's not large and in charge, you know."

"Grrr!" Korra grunted.

"Ty Lee, are some of the people leaving the island?" Sokka asked her. "It looks like they are."

"They're hearing things about the capital city that's still being built," she explained. "They want to see just how united it's going to be."

"I just wonder how it's going to be in several more years," said Yue. "It's not big or anything right now, but it'll get there in the future."

"The future moves ever so slowly," added Sokka, "if it ever moves at all, like a Turtle Seal on land."

Ty Lee led to the island shrine where Suki currently was, reviewing the history of Avatar Kyoshi. The princess still had some lingering doubts that the last known Avatar of the Earth Kingdom had lived to be two-hundred-thirty years old, but since there were spirits residing within the mortal coil that were older than humans, she considered that anybody able to live past the age of one-hundred-five was either incredibly fit or incredibly lucky. Though two things she did believe about Kyoshi were that she had the largest feet of any person in history, based on the size of her boots, and that she was the tallest of any Avatar, based on her kimono. Entering the shrine, they noticed the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors standing in front of a large portrait of Kyoshi.

"Whoa," Yue expressed, seeing the similarity between the warrior leader and the island founder, just as Suki turned to face them.

"Nearly everyone tells me I look identical to Avatar Kyoshi," Suki responded.

"It's so uncanny, you could actually be her."

"Yeah."

"So…how have you been since the last time we got together?" Sokka asked Suki.

"Things have been quiet," she answered back. "So quiet, it feels like everything has slowed down. It's strange, but I miss the old days where we were making a difference, trying to save the world."

"Kind of like Toph when we were traveling around the Fire Nation," went Yue, "except without the hero worships and gratification all the time. Though, I usually just enjoy the traveling in the sky most of the time…and underwater, too."

With that, Suki was reminded of how, just a week after the war had officially ended, the Kyoshi Warriors had been shown the submarines built by the Mechanist and designed by Sokka as part of the failed invasion of the Fire Nation, impressed by the fact that it showed you the undersea world while traveling from one place to another by means of the ocean. And the submarines and airships were seeing potential in the transportation business of the world. Though, it would be a while before the Mechanist could make it so that Waterbenders wouldn't be needed to make submarines sink and float.

As they continued to converse, they had left the shrine and traveled down to the beach, where Sokka was requested to catch a barrel of fish for the village. This allowed for Yue and Suki to speak in private.

"…You must have the greatest degree of patience, Yue," went Suki, referring to her waiting for the fifth nation to no longer require her fiancee's aid in its construction so that they might start their life as a married couple.

"I believe it's like a degree of what King Bumi referred to as Neutral Jing, doing nothing, waiting and listening before doing something." Yue explained her patience. "Or, even though we love each other greatly, we're performing Negative Jing a little, avoiding unity until we can take the big leap of faith."

"Say," Suki was suddenly curious about something, "have you two gone and… Well, have you two…"

Yue noticed how the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors placed her palms together, and responded, "No, we haven't. I mean, we're rarely ever alone. And…we're not exactly thinking that just yet."

"Grr," they heard Korra yawn, turning onto her back after laying on her left side.

"Sticks to you like glue, huh?" Suki asked with a chuckle.

"She's like a baby; therefore she needs a lot of attention," Yue explained her bison's dependence upon her. "She comes with her own rewards, though. I love her as much as I love Sokka or my family."

"Yeow!" They heard Sokka gasp; apparently, an Elephant Koi had come close to where he was in the water and nearly cost him the fish he had caught. "I'm alright!"

"Ah-ha-ha-ha!" The girls laughed, just as he returned to the beach with his barrel of fish for the villagers, certain that he caught enough.

-x-

Later that night, after some encouragement by Suki, Yue led Sokka back to the beach, under the pretense of there being some large pearls near a cave. And leaving Korra with the Kyoshi Warriors until they returned with the pearls. Sokka wasn't so sure about there being pearls, but he was sure that if Suki said there would be, then with Yue's bending, they could get a handful of them to bring back to the village. Only Yue knew the meaning behind this search for pearls.

"Based on what Suki told me, the cave should be right about here," Yue told Sokka, as they reached a mountainside by the beach.

"Which would mean the cave is underwater," Sokka realized.

Yue then parted the water so that she and Sokka could simply walk under the water and reach the cave without getting wet, since Yue had been practicing more advanced Waterbending from other masters back home. Traveling under the small waves now, Sokka couldn't help but be impressed by his fiancee's advancing abilities with her bending.

"Ah, here it is," his train of thought was broken by Yue speaking up, having found the entrance to the cave, revealing that it looked like a crack in the side of the mountain. "No wonder the villagers don't come here often. It's not only difficult to get to, but you couldn't hold your breath underwater for the length of time we took to get here."

As they continued on, Sokka started to notice what appeared to be several clam shells adorning the cave walls, along with starfish and octopi, as though the cave were a secret hideaway or something. Yue noticed this, as well, never seeing anything like this back home. It almost made her feel a degree of envy that other parts of the world had places of beauty that befitted their statuses as part of the Four Nations, since much of the landscape back home was snow, ice and water, with very little flora and almost no places that allowed for an adventure close to home.

_I guess it's due to the aftermath of the One-Hundred Year War,_ she thought, deducing that, because she spent the first sixteen years of her life sheltered by the icy walls of the Northern Water Tribe, and then spending several months away from home by traveling around the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation, seeing many places that could change with the seasons, the winter weather of home wasn't so great after all that. _I marvel the places that change with the passing seasons._

They reached a soaked formation of eroded rock that resembled steps and walked up them. Yue saw that there wasn't any water where they were rising and parted the bubble that conserved their limited air supply, revealing a dry, dark and large chamber that seemed to have minute, glistening sparkles. The darkness prompted Sokka to light a torch, identical to the ones that they saw belonging to those singing nomads the day they were trying to reach Omashu and had to go through the Cave of Two Lovers when flying on Appa wasn't an option, illuminating the chamber. The sparkling lights were revealed to be pearls. Thousands of pearls, in various piles and clusters around shells.

"Incredible," Yue gasped, inspecting a large pile, and then picking up a handful of them. "There must be over a million pearls."

Sokka and she then started filling up a pair of sacks with the pearls until Yue noticed another opening nearby, and went over into it. The light from the torch provided the princess with easy-to-see things, and found an open space that was, for lack of a better word, bare. Setting the half-empty sack of pearls down, Yue sat on the ground and rested. Her patience was great, but only for a great many things…and there were a few things she didn't have much patience for.

"This should be plenty," Sokka believed, having filled his sack with a lot of pearls, but left it light enough to carry back without having to stop and catch his breath. "We can go back now, Yue."

He turned around, but found that his fiancee was nowhere in sight.

"Yue?" He called out, seeing another opening that he hadn't seen before.

"In here, Sokka," she called back, and he picked up the torch and went into the chamber, seeing her sitting against a cave wall, her sack of pearls left by itself in front of her.

Catching him a little off guard, he noticed that she had let her hair, which had white mostly on the left side and brown mostly on the right side, down, and the upper part of her dress had been opened to reveal the upper curves of her sternum. Sokka felt his heart beat a little faster and his body temperature increasing a few degrees.

"Heh-heh," Yue chuckled mischievously, patting the dirt on her left side and ushering him to come sit next to her.

He obliged without question and sat beside her; maybe he was imagining things, but it seemed like Yue was masking a degree of impatience toward him. But he wouldn't make her wait for much longer. The United Republic of Nations was almost able to advance enough without his assistance and then he could spend his life with Yue. Then, he felt a hand atop his own and found that Yue had gotten a little closer near him. While it wasn't a total invasion of personal space, the lack of space between them was enough for him to realize something that had slipped his mind more than once right now: They were in a cave, beneath the water, away from others, meaning they were alone, something that seemed to be denied for some time ever since they got together.

"Suki set this up, didn't she?" He had to ask, just to be sure.

"Yeah," Yue confessed. "Are you…disappointed?"

"Um, no… No. It's…just surprising that she did this."

"I was surprised, too."

She leaned in and kissed him…and he wrapped his arms around her.

-x-

"…Grr…" Korra had responded to an instruction that Ty Lee had given, as the Kyoshi Warrior was actually trying to teach the bison calf how to walk on her front feet and stay balanced with her back feet. "Grr!"

It would've probably been easier if the bison calf had only four legs instead of six, but it seemed Korra was actually making progress; she had managed to pull off Ty Lee's stunt…for eight seconds. This made Suki laugh a bit. In the months that Ty Lee had been on the island, the majority of the Kyoshi Warriors had learned the art of chi blocking, making them a much more effective group of guardians and protectors of the island's people. As she looked out a window toward the ocean, the leader did a hand stand on her own, almost able to perform such a stunt with her fingers.

-x-

Sokka took his time, and he had good reason to. He'd never done something like this before. He might've heard of it, but there was a major difference between hearing about something…and experiencing something.

Yue stayed calm as he removed her dress, exposing layer after layer of her skin to the cool air. She hid her woes by thinking of other things, like the time they spent in the Cave of Two Lovers, how they got separated from Aang and Katara and allowed love to lead them out of the labyrinth, which also helped in leading Sokka to accept that there were always certain aspects of the world that simply couldn't be explained with a logical solution. She felt him peeling away the lower half of her dress, revealing her undergarments; she could've sworn that he shuddered from something as he began to remove the garments off her torso. She looked up at him and saw why; it was due to the shame he still felt that, while she recovered completely in the year following the end of the war, what remained of her chest injury was a tiny, bruise-like marking similar to an upside-down star, in between her breasts. And on her back was another bruise-like marking with a star that was upright.

"Sokka," she uttered, reaching up and caressing his left cheek, "it's okay. I'm fine."

He nodded in acceptance and kissed her again, putting her back down as he removed the rest of her garments before removing his own.

Yue stole a glimpse at his back and was impressed at muscle tone he had developed from all the working he had did in developing the fifth nation that would unite the people. Then again, all the running and traveling had been a workout enough for him.

Sokka then began caressing her legs with his hands, progressing upward until he reached her bosom…and placed his mouth on her right breast.

"Ah!" She gasped; his breath was warm on her skin, and she grabbed his back, holding him closely.

She soon felt his left hand (as his right hand was being used to hold her by the side) slip in between her legs, reaching around the moist, dampness that she had. Then, as though possessed, she flipped him onto his back and got on top of him, kissing him below his chin.

"Yue!" He gasped, feeling her fingernails at his shoulder blades. "I… More, please!"

She reached down between them and grabbed him…

"Aaahh!" He gasped, and pushed her back to kiss her again. "Mmmm!"

The princess let him pin her down for a while, but then, after several moments, she pinned him back down. She had lost her hair loopies in the last toss for control, letting her brown and white hair down.

"We haven't even gotten to what I heard is the best yet," she expressed, reaching down to him again.

"Aaah!" He gasped, unsure of how many times she was going to touch him down there in the future.

"You're big," she said, sounding seductive. "Really big."

"Yue…" He shuddered, and then felt something surrounding him as his lover…lowered down onto him. "Yue…"

Yue felt him pressing up against what felt like a wall or something inside her and lowered herself completely onto him, causing what felt like a burst of ooze inside her belly.

"Aaaah!" Sokka gasped, not expecting a degree of pain.

"Aaaah!" Yue gasped, feeling her own pain subside. "Sokka…does it feel…good for you?"

"Yes, Yue," he answered her, feeling the pain cease now, "but it also feels strange. It's…warm and sticky, unlike anything I've ever experienced before."

Yue shifted her body forward, lowering her head to his chest and bit one of his nipples, sending a painful-yet-pleasurable sensation to his brain.

"Don't hold back on me, Sokka," she told him, raising herself up to face him. "Give me your all. Your best…and your worst. All of it."

He rose up and held her by her shoulders, kissed her again, with much greater passion than ever before, and then lowered her to her back. They…they were harmonized now, united in a strange way. Bracing himself with his palms on either side of her head, he slowly pulled out…and then pushed it back in with a grunt, causing Yue to react with a small shake.

"Yue…does it…feel good…for you?" He asked as he thrust in and out of her.

"If it…feels good for you…it feels good…for me," she responded, smiling up to him. "Knowing that it makes you feel good…really…exhilarates me."

No longer feeling any pain, Sokka went faster, as if under someone else's control, with a fear that he might hurt Yue in his passion.

"Yue, I…I…can't stop," he panted, and felt her legs wrap around his sides as she raised her hands to hold his head. "I…I…"

"Give it all to me, Sokka," she panted in response, feeling herself tighten around him. "Sokka… Aaaah… Aaaaah!"

"Aaaaurgh!" Sokka exploded, right in time for Yue to pull her legs down on him, driving him further into herself.

"It's…all flowing…out your…" Yue felt like she had the wind knocked out of her, but she was smiling happily, which meant it was good that she did feel that, and then felt Sokka's head fall on her breasts, exhausted and drained of energy. "Wow."

As Sokka caught his breath, he felt like a river inside him had flooded and overflowed over everything nearby. All that he had…just flowed out. It all flowed out and mingled with Yue's. He rolled over to her left and sighed, looking at her, who looked back at him, smiling. They then kissed again and embraced, drifting off into a slumber that had been just around the corner for them.

-x-

The rising sun gave the beach shore of Kyoshi Island a magnificent beauty that seemed equal only to the sky's colors that changed with the rising and setting of the sun itself. As Suki walked with Korra on the sand, the bison calf had managed to pull off a Ty Lee, walking on her front legs and balancing with her hind legs, managing to use her middle legs to aid in the balancing act.

"Grrr!" She growled.

"Heh-heh!" Suki laughed.

Korra then looked out at the water and saw it parting, revealing a pair of familiar faces, which made her very happy.

Sokka and Yue came out of the water, carrying sacks filled with pearls, and from the looks of things, the Tribal Princess' dress seemed off in a way, and Suki found this was because she was wearing Sokka's coat.

"There were a lot of pearls in that cave," Yue expressed, setting her sack down on the sand. "I believe the villagers will be most pleased."

"Very," Suki responded.

"Ah!" Sokka cried out, falling into the water. "I'm okay."

"Ah-heh-heh!" The girls giggled.

-x-

Epilogue

Many years passed by, almost like taking a large leap through time. A lot happened in decades that came and went: The United Republic of Nations became a beacon of unity between the people of the Four Nations, both benders and non-benders, Avatar Aang and Katara got married had at least three children, Sokka and Yue were married three weeks after Republic City had been built enough that Sokka wasn't needed as much any further, but he still came to aid in its construction and reputation every now and then, and the couple were blessed with four children. Fire Lord Zuko was married to his sweetheart, Mai for several years before having a daughter that succeeded Zuko, who passed the position of Fire Lord to her and went on to travel the world, and the blind Earthbender, Toph Beifong, master behind Metalbending, had, despite many surprises from everybody, had a daughter with The Duke (even Toph didn't want to explain why she decided to date him when he got educated after the war ended). Eight years after they were married, Aang went and built Air Temple Island as a home for his family and the Air Nomads and Air Acolytes that would reside there with the Flying Bison herd and Winged Lemurs. Suki, despite everything, including her relationship with Sokka, stayed on Kyoshi Island to protect the people from danger with her fellow warriors, though during the years of Republic City's expansion and the rebuilding of many towns and villages of the Earth Kingdom, she had a son named Taka, but she never would say who his father was, although some of the people could swear that was a resemblance between him and another man they met years ago; there was something about the way Taka would either throw things or fall and hurt himself when he practiced Earthbending.

In the Northern Water Tribe, an elderly woman, looking well over one-hundred-twenty years old, had just set down one of her annual offerings to the Moon and Ocean Spirits, accompanied by a large bison.

"Grrr!" The bison growled, just as the woman slowly rose back up onto her feet.

"Don't worry," she sighed, feeling a little weak, "I'm okay, sweetie."

"Lady Yue?" A young man, well into his early-thirties, with short, brown hair and a beard and mustache, entered the Spirit Oasis and knelt before her. "We have just received word from the Southern Water Tribe."

"Oh?" The woman, an older Yue, responded.

"Well, as you know, almost five years ago, Avatar Aang passed away in his sleep after reaching the age of one-hundred-thirty-two…" The man said, but then Yue kindly interrupted him.

"Two-hundred-thirty-two," she stated, "as he was trapped in an iceberg for one-hundred years, remaining as he was the day he got stuck."

"Right. Two-hundred-thirty-two, marking him as the oldest known male Avatar. Just recently, word is from the South Pole is that the new Avatar was found."

"Oh? Really? Who is it?"

"It's…your great-granddaughter, Korra," the man revealed.

"My great-granddaughter, the only daughter of my youngest grandson of my youngest daughter and her husband? Are you sure?"

"Yes. The rest of your family have already been informed."

Yue smiled and said she would be home shortly, and the man left her and her bison alone.

"Korra," she addressed her bison, "do you think Sokka would be proud if he were here?"

"Grr," Korra growled, softly brushing her head against her lifelong companion.

Yue, who had gone from being a princess to a wife and mother…straight to a widow after eighty years of a happy marriage, had to wonder if her husband, who died protecting her and the people of Republic City from a ruthless Bloodbender named Yakone, after spending fifteen years mastering Waterbending, a gift she had bestowed upon him later in their marriage after she got around discovering that she, like Aang, could transfer knowledge of bending…or take bending away. There wasn't a single day that went by that she mourned his passing, just as they had mourned Suki's passing; there were times when they were still young where she tried to suggest to Suki that she come live with them at the North Pole, but every time Suki declined, still loving Sokka, but not wanting to come between her and him, even when Yue stated, in all her honesty, that she had never come between them, as there was nothing to hide between them. And then Suki passed away from old age, leaving Taka alone. Well, not truly alone; one of Yue and Sokka's children, their first daughter, an Airbender named Sora, went with him to travel the world outside the boundaries of Kyoshi Island.

"Still…I haven't seen since she was just a two-year-old," Yue cheered up, looking at the brighter side of her life while she still lived. "We should go see her sometime, huh?"

"Grr!" Korra growled, and then they left the Spirit Oasis to return home.

The End…or is it?

A/N: What do you think? Was it good for you? I'm not entirely good with lemons, despite reading them, so I can't be sure if any of you will enjoy it. Please review the final chapter. I might just get around writing a second Avatar story since much of it changed the ending. Happy New Year!


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